Guild Wars 2

In WvW – Mace / Focus has our biggest AoE burst potential. Hands Down.

SoW (4-5k) + Symbol (2-3k) -> JI (1-2k) + Protectors Strike (4-5k) + Smite (3-5k) / WPNSwp -> Mighty Blow or GS / WW.

If ranged and moving sub Symbol for Ray.

Couple that combo w/ an Engi / Ele / Mes and it’s GG.

Arken.3725:

Saiyan.1704:

Arken.3725:

Saiyan.1704:

My main issue with sword is the #2 skill hit not being instant. When entering battle with flashing blade, you have to wait a second for a strike Then switch to trigger in battle state. Certain sigils will not proc otherwise and it’s a Huge pain.
I think the scepter, which mainly does single target damage, should do more DPS than any 1 hand weapon. The sword was always meant to be a hybrid, single target dps or group fight weapon.

Funny thing you mention that. I looked at other ranged weapons from other professions and the rifle from Engineer, long bow from Warrior and Ranger hits as hard if not harder and pretty much never misses. Funny that.

Yea it’s not nice. Scepter auto being already slow and easy to dodge, should get a damage buff imo. I’m thinking 100 more damage on top of it’s base. That’ll be an additional 250’sh damage on crits (I think, I’m terrible at theory crafting)

The thing is that won’t really help. I’d rather it actually hit than get a damage buff.

They need to PIERCE to be effective… otherwise its nothing more than splash dmg.

Arken.3725:

Amins.3710:

Said it numerous times since Beta:

1) Sword #1, second strike needs to cripple. This would alleviate alot of the misses on third strile.
2) Zealots Defense need to work on the move.
3) Zealots Defense is now Projectile
4) Zealots Defense now blocks for 2 seconds instead of 3.

5) Powerful Blades Trait in Radianceneeds to be changed as follows: +5% Damage and Projectiles now Pierce

1: That would be interesting, still not a fan of the third hit being a projectile. Maybe change both?

2: Not bad. Now in conjunction with 4, is it blocks all attacks or just ranged?

I wouldn’t change the block mechanic, imo.

It’s quite good against quite a few ranged classes, regardless of what other’s think: Scepter Ele’s, Rangers, Rifle Engi’s just to name a few.

Said it numerous times since Beta:

1) Sword #1, second strike needs to cripple. This would alleviate alot of the misses on third strile.
2) Zealots Defense need to work on the move.
3) Zealots Defense is now Projectile
4) Zealots Defense now blocks for 2 seconds instead of 3.

5) Powerful Blades Trait in Radianceneeds to be changed as follows: +5% Damage and Projectiles now Pierce

Keksmuffin.1450:

I’ve been maining meditation guard since forever, been top 50 teamq since last leaderbord reset with it, played it in a bunch of bigger tournaments and won a bunch of 2v2 and 5v5 ESL weeklies with it. I would dare to claim that I have more experience with meditation guard than some random wvw roamer that writes a guide for his random throwtogether of traits.

Your ego astonishes me.

Why even go there?

Insulting the Guardian Community while “Requiring” their respect because of your proclaimed accomplishments is short sighted at best.

Keksmuffin.1450:

Lyssa runes? Knight amulet? Meh… you gonna end up with pretty bad damage like that.

If I would be forced to run gs/hammer for some reason I would play smth like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARSlsApcoVDxbI8DNRDRlZ8dfY+BZw1HwFGAA-TpBFwACuAAMOEAIOCA12foaZAAPAAA

If you want to be useful you should still just use scepter/focus but oh well.

I love how +150 power and less condi removal (survivability) equates to “useless” and “pretty bad damage”… lol

Holl – That will work – just take Lyssa Runes and Energy Sigils.

Don’t forget… alot of the info you’re getting here is a bit skewed as well, as most non-competitive people seem to negate the light field condi removal…

W/ all the recent moves to pew pew… that’s a ton of condi clears: You’ll learn to love SB Thieves, LB Rangers & Staff Necro’s =‘] for their projectile combo’s.

You can have alot of fun w/ that: build link

Is it meta – no – is it fun, yes.

PS – I’m assuming you’re talking pvp – not wvw.

PSS – Banish JI Stomping… most fun ever.

Updated Vid

5v13

Fun camp fighting – 29 kills.

Booms.2594:

Amins.3710:

OP –
If you’re going for DMG – Maximize your Dmg Modifiers.
If you’re going for Support – Focus on CC, Condi Removal & Boons.

Most importantly though, make sure your “build” and your utilities sync up. You’re running 3 signets but have no traits that support the utilities.

wat r u talking about he srunning meditations lol

Oh – that’s weird… this was supposed to be a response to a different thread!

Ragnarox.9601:

We just need new traits to improve it.

Like 20% increase speed of 3rd attack and 20% decrease simbol duration.
Or 5# to make it consecration
Or 5# change to aoe attack or jump like warriors

there are lots of ideas out there…but like new retreat buff after 2,3 years…dont expect too much…

All of which could have been added to the ZEAL trait line – /cough Devs.

OP –
If you’re going for DMG – Maximize your Dmg Modifiers.
If you’re going for Support – Focus on CC, Condi Removal & Boons.

Most importantly though, make sure your “build” and your utilities sync up. You’re running 3 signets but have no traits that support the utilities.

5 Guard Bomb

Well, we only had 4 guards on initial bomb, one was slack’n at the back of the bus!

sinject.4607:

RyuDragnier.9476:

ITT: OP is QQing because he lost a match and rather than get better, he wants to nerf a class because he lost.

that kind of damage from that range on that low of a cooldown isn’t healthy.

there is no other profession in the game that is able to invest entirely in offensive-only traitlines and walk away with a build that’s viable against human players.

You’re right – it’s not like a Thief can Steal + C&D + BS someone from 14k hp -> 0 at 1500 range in 2 seconds… FROM STEALTH.

L2P and don’t be so hypocritical.

Kindred Zeal should have been: Condition Damage is based off of Power.

Good Stuff Incomingray, as always.

As a side comment, I’d look at loosing the 200 +healing and adding +24% Boon duration by going to exotic accessories and adding +4% Doubloons for the Hammer (blast finish) / Staff set up.

Been playing a bit more lately – figured I’d post some more vid’s for some of the newer guys.

As always, nothing special. Just typical gameplay w/ the same group of great guys.

Vid – Kill-Streak

Vid – Thinning out the Herd

Same ol Build

1) Zealots Defense needs its velocity increased by about 25%.
2) It needs to Pierce. It’s already “Destroying Ranged Attacks” through it’s projectiles… so why can’t it pierce?

Upping the damage would be ridiculous. It’s not hard to get 6.5k on a knock-down’d target when running w/ an Ele or War.

Xytl.8659:

I have to say i’m generally quite confused by some of the things you mentioned… I should explain a few things, and also have some questions to ask.

I chose the Accuracy sigil because this is primarily a WvW build, and stacking sigils do not do well in WvW, ever.

Guess that depends on how often your group dies: Stratigic kiting to weed out the zerg that’s chasing you or just not engaging are invaluable tools

You never remain on a single map long enough as a small fighting group to accumulate and then efficiently use all 25 stacks from a sigil, even with 5 stacks per player kill.

Are you really saying you can’t kill 5 people with your havoc group in a timely fashion?

I prefer to stick with the safe static bonus over one that needs to get up to speed, and then can be lost instantly…

I prefer an extra 5% Crit chance and learn not to engage large groups unless we’re just having super fun and “to hell with it”: Difference in play-styles I guess – to each’s own

---

As for the condi clears… I’m very confused. You claimed I have no condi removal, yet the passive effect of Signet of Resolve is to remove conditions.

The only thing I dropped was a 1 condi every 10s (keep CoP if you need it). But what you gain is SOOOO much more valuable than 1 condi clear every 10s: Group HEAL, and a good one at that. In fact, w/ the build I put forth, if you kept CoP, you’d have even MORE condi clear because a -60% condi duration significantly outweighs 1 condi every 10s – hands down

You then replaced with Merciful Intervention, providing me with less condi removal.

I provided less “burst” condi removal, but better condi removal overall: -60% Condi Damage. This really sounds like you need to help your group understand the value of pew pew’n into light fields or your warrior hitting #3 on his GS

I do not have that kind of money to throw at every single character I own. Hoelbrak runes would be great, and I will eventually run them.

fair enough =]

---

Generally these fights are so quick that my Elementalist does not have the time to roll back onto me and heal me, as that both removes pressure from the people we are fighting, and breaks his skill rotation, generally he will provide the might passively by being an elementalist, and I would provide CC support to him.

I’m confused, why aren’t you on the target?

Moreover, if you’ve ventured off, you have a plethora of gap closer: just don’t chase the squirrel man… as hard as it is (trust me, I love squirrels!)… just don’t do it. lol

It’s certainly a different kind of build you suggested, but a more expensive one that doesn’t quite fit into my groups synergy the way it needs to. I will however bookmark it to experiment with later on, thank you.

Good Luck!

Build Link

Embrace the Chilldian!

Also, don’t worry so much about Str Sigils if you’re running w/ an Ele man… Hammertime and everyone will lurv u. You’ll dish out crazy amounts of chill and might.

Dropped the 7% crit and added perception.

Healing Breeze

You had no condi cleanse.. at all, outside of a 1 time purge. Changed your food + rune set. Much better all around. This would even allow you to remove the condi purge (cop) and substitue MI – a MUCH better utility for a small grp play.

Reasons:
1) 1200 yard cap closer on enemy cuz you know your ele / war / thief can get to the target: IE RoW + MI = clutch.
2) Added Grp Heal burst – MI + VoJ + Healing Breeze.
3) Disengage tool.

Your ele can clear the evil condi bomb when rains down on you: torment / bleed / Confusion

PS: other guys here on the forum are much better at stat allocation than I am – I still wear green gear just because I’m too lazy to mo-ze on over to that pve zone and spend some of my 4.6k karma and get a backpack that’s not greenzzzz.

For WvW – I’ve been using this for about a year and a half. It’s gotten some nice buff’s in that time, but the playstyle itself hasn’t changed.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoAR-IIV-ht_jQyUwrFHgY8XuvQ3IWXg5

Harbinger.8637:

it’s the Celestial ammy and might stacking. They’re the really culprits on why d/d is so strong atm.

QFT -

And the damage on the 3rd strike on Mace #1 hits like a truck.

Mace + Focus has HUGE burst potential – upwards of 12k.

Combo: SoW → Start Symbol of Faith + JI → Protectors Strike if it’s a grp.

Substitute Ray of Judgement for Symbol pending situation.

Saiyan.1704:

the good players know their classes’ limitations unlike most users running “meta builds”, thinking they can go head-to-head with any class and win.

QFT.

Buran.3796:

Ynna.8769:

I’m not sure if I agree that roaming Guardians are useless and hopeless. They have a few drawbacks (slow as hell), but they can still contribute a lot. Granting boons and removing conditions is never not useful, neither is stacking Might, offering Swiftness and Stability or dealing good damage. (I’m not saying a single build can accomplish all those things).

You are thinking more in the “N vs N” small skirmish component of the term “roaming”, in which Guardians is ok. I was thinking more in the “solo roaming”, which means being able to cut down dolyaks, take camps and also to kill lone players without assist. And in those task, as lone roamer, Guardians have a big “nope” over His heads: they are slow moving around the map, they lack tools to properly disengage or evade encounters against the odds. If you build for sustain, you’ll not be able to kill enemies, if you build for the kills, you will not be able to sustain yoursefl enough. Other classes can outpace you while keeping enough punch to kill foes and enough sustain to being able to fight outnumbered if you have advantage in skill. That doesn’t happens using a Guardian.

Disagree w/ just about everything you said, Buran.

You want to go out and solo camps (ez) and kill lone players, build for it. I have zero issue taking out a fully upgraded camp within a couple minutes. And no, don’t say every other class can do it faster. Taht’s just flat out wrong.

Zenith.7301:

Clearly if Longbow for rangers is seeing a nerf because of its prominence, perhaps you want to follow that twisted logic down to Greatswords, which have dominated many of the game’s formats for, oh, I don’t know, 2 years already.

Wonderful, then by your logic, Ranger GS will be nerf’d too… as that’s pretty standard for Lb / Gs Rangers.

Could you please run over to Hazmat and get me a canister of ID10T? Thank you.

Guardian Zerkers in WvW: 2/5/6/0/1 GS + S/F is what I run.

1) Damage Negation is where your survivability really comes from and takes knowing what other classes burst skills are.

You negate damage via 4x blinds.

You negate damage via 3x blocks.

You negate damage via dodge.

Knowing when to do what against what opponents is what keeps you alive. Blow them too fast and you’re going to eat a ranger pew pew, necro chain fear after you’ve been loaded up or a warrior / ele burst while stunned.

2) Spike Healing & Condi cleanse.

This comes from Meditations, Food & Sigils. I typically run w/ Poultry Leak & Sigils of Blood.

3) Burst Rotations.

Probably the hardest to time as you really need to take the risk vs reward, as mentioned above: Do I use them for burst or do I use them to escape. We have the most balanced risk vs reward in the game, imho.

It’s possible to make the claim we have the best AoE Burst in game. But if you do it, we’ve spent ~EVERYTHING~ to do it and you better have killed them because the cooldowns are long as fk. lol

4) Mobility.

Don’t be fooled, we have really good mobility if you choose the right weapons w/ Meditations. The best thing about Sword blink & JI is that they’re instant and the ability to chain all 3 together is phenomenal, regardless of what others say.

Travellers Runes.

Basic premise of GC Guard.

Please change the title to PvE might stacking.

Unholy Sanctuary should have been: You receive 25% of incoming healing while in DS.

Simple.

Lucentfir.7430:

engies will make you wanna stop playing guard for a little bit and play a condi necro to unleash unholy justice on every engi you see. :P

^^ lol

Skeletor.9360:

This isn’t even close.

Same guy QQ’n on the Guardian forum too, about guardian GS pull + RoW. lol

Seems this person as a L2P issue.

Klonko.8341:

What is not fine in the other hand, is the signet of stone and of the wild. Giving 6 sec to a class that can go brainless and down you in those 6 sec is the real culprit. Also the signet of the wild should be “shave” to a lesser amount than 25% like 5-10%.

You’re Wrong.

Warriors have 3 sources of Invulnerability, all significatnly outlasting Ranger.

Guardians have 2 sources on MUCH shorter cooldowns.

Engi’s have 2 sources of invuln + Invis.

Ele’s.. yes, again.

This is a L2P issue.

Fun support build

Kjeldoran.3849:

if you want a full support role you will end up with 0 damage output in most of cleric/support guardian build .

Why do you keep spewing this bullkitten?

OP:

First and foremost: Define your role and talk about it w/ your guildies.

What’s actually needed that a guardian provides?

- Condi Cleanse?
- Healing?
- Stability?
- Point Control for kiting a zerg?
- Hybrid of Dmg + minor heal / boon / CC?

Maybe you don’t need to roll a guardian, maybe you need a Staff Ele? Or maybe, you need a Thief as all your group really needs is Stealth + some Deeps? Maybe you need a Warrior’s Stun Locking and Shout Healing.

Small man roaming as a guard:
1) Massive Burst Dmg w/ Blind Spam Support: 2/5/6/x/x
2) Incredible Sustained Healing, Condi cleanse: 4/6/4
3) Healway (0/0/2/6/6) for Condi Cleanse, Boons (stability/prot/regen), Healing & Blinds. * Really is the best support small grp roaming build*

Staff, Hammer, Mace/Shield = all good support / point control.

Sword/Focus (or shield) + GS = Burst Dmg and Blind Spam.

dancingmonkey.4902:

Lifestealer.4910:

Heres how to make necro balanced:

nerf nightmare runes
nerf reapers protection
nerf corrupt boons
nerf staff 5

that way they can’t just faceroll their keyboards and win all the time. Its still disgusting that when playing an engineer that they can auto win most of the time. Mesmers got what they wanted with the thief nerfs, now its our turn for the necro nerfs.

Would you mind breaking down precisely how they are out of balance? How do you face roll as a necro? How many hours do you have on your necro? And how long did it take you to hit the level of skill that you “face roll” all you come across?

Ok, so from a Guardian Perspective -

Nerf Engi Stealth.
Nerf Engi’s ability to lay 15 stacks of confusion
Nerfi Engi’s condi Removal
Nerf Engi’s Bomb/heal spam
Nerf Engi’s Mobility

Cuz it makes it hard to kill an engi as a bunker guardian.

Mr. Lifestealer: Face, meet Palm

Spirigo.2897:

Always take “Stand Your Ground!”, “Hold The Line!” and Purging Flames in your 789 slots. This is a must for blobbing..

Most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.

Drop the 4 in Valor and take Virtues to 6. You’ve got Permeating Wreath, Stability or Condi Clear, imo.

Don’t forget about the nighttime food.

You can run Strength / Chilling sigils + Food for a Chill/Might/Burn build.

QQ – Reroll the true race: Asuran

Kjeldoran.3849:

first of all for those who say “guardian isn’t supposed to be supporter” read the description here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/guardian/

Guardian

Guardians are devoted fighters who protect their allies and smite their enemies by drawing from the power of their virtues. True guardians are brilliant tacticians and selfless defenders who know when to sacrifice their own defenses to empower their allies to achieve victory.

• Seems as if you only ready the first part and conveniently glanced over the second part…. It’s called an “And Statement” for a reason.

Smite & Tactical… why? Cuz we’re glass cannon Medi DPS’ers!

Short Answer – Every other build can be worked in as support (yes, even spirit weapons w/ Bow & Shield).

Consecrations – Support.
Shouts – Support
Virtues / Boons – Support
Spirit Weapons – Bow & Shield (crappy build overall outside of trolling in spvp)
Signets – Broken – only fun w/ Spirit- hammer / Hammer / Bane for trolling lockdown fun.

Meditations – DPS.

Nuff said.

MethaneGas.8357:

I have never tried using perplex runes but considered it. Some condi Necros actually do use them, and it can be very nasty cuz on top of the Torment, you also have confusion >_> So while you are being feared, you stun break (1 tick of confusion), use heal skill (another tick of confusion)… a lot of damage and pressure. I think they are really good in 1v1, 1v2, 1v3 scenarios, or when you aren’t fighting too many enemies because the runes are single-target. The cooldown on the confusion is too long for larger fights so it can get cleansed off quickly and nothing else really benefits from them. But… for 1v1s it’s pretty OP in my opinion…. but… that’s perplexity :P

Epi + Perpelx.

kitten Already – SKILL POINTS ACCOUNT BASED.

Please promptly remove head from @$$.

I think the major issue was that they said very plainly they were going to address defense and survivability… none of these changes addressed that.

Apolo.5942:

Amins.3710:

1) AoE Stability

Everyone has access to stability, redundancy does not mean much in a self sufficient oriented environment.

3) Point Controls

Other classes do this better due to the existence of poison.

4) Hands down best ~~Sustained~~ Grp Condi Removal in game

Same problem as 1

5) Best ~~ Sustained~~ Group Healing in game (Shout Warrior does better “Burst Healing” – and by better I mean “easier”, because a guardian will output more burst if spec’d to, it’s just much much harder to pull off)

Same problem as 1, exacerbated by the fact that devs do not want healer specs.

6) Combo Finishers Trump Warrior’s hands down. (Hammer / GS -> Blast (4s), Whirl (10s), Leap 12s)

which would be awesome if we had anything other light fields to trigger, plus hammer sucs all around, if it did not have the finisher nobody would play it.

1 & 4) Clearly you have reading issues: Sustained Group Based.

3) Poison does not equal Point Control.

5) I have no issues healing my group and making it my sole focus. Clearly you need my build and playstle. Feel free to browse around, you might learn a few things.

6) Combo Fields are there to ~enhance~ gameplay. Nuff said.

It’s evident you play GW2 – 1v1. Not Guild Wars.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Nick.6972:

Wanted to make exactly the same thread.

Guardian feels the most linear and boring class in GW2.

This is the only thing you got right in your post.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

As someone who has played every class since 80, has everything in ascended gear & has done my fair share of wvw, pve & Spvp.

I’ll tell you one thing

The only thing the guardian does that the warrior doesn’t is apply protection.

…..On the other hand is where the differences come into play, they have more condition removal then warriors for their allies & themselves.

^^ For someone who “has every an 80 in every class”, you really must have not spent much time on your Guardian…

rofl -

1) AoE Stability
2) Reflections
3) Point Controls
4) Hands down best ~~Sustained~~ Grp Condi Removal in game
5) Best ~~ Sustained~~ Group Healing in game (Shout Warrior does better “Burst Healing” – and by better I mean “easier”, because a guardian will output more burst if spec’d to, it’s just much much harder to pull off)
6) Combo Finishers Trump Warrior’s hands down. (Hammer / GS -> Blast (4s), Whirl (10s), Leap 12s)

Great – Now Spirit Weapons can be used in our SUPPORT Builds…

Way

To

Go….

Support Buff’s…. exactly what we needed.

Skill Pts should be able to be used for all character abilities – acct wide.

Crafting and such – you have your mains for that.

There is no reason that Acct Wide Skill abilities shouldn’t be used for skills / utilities.

Crafting / Map Completion… who cares. This is a Quality of Life. PvE’n for Skill Points after your 2nd character is fk’n LAME.

Lunaire.5827:

With the introduction of the upcoming glorious hero’s armor, only the people who win pvp tournaments will have access to this armor set. This means you are restricting an exclusive armor set to less than 1% of your player base.
This means you are excluding 99% of your playerbase from an armor set just so the 1% can feel special.

Quite frankly I thought ArenaNet was above this sort of design. Why did this change?

You’re absolutely right… I mean, what PvP or WvW’er really wants to go out and do 100% Map Completion for a Legendary…

They’re totally neglecting, segregating and marginalizing a player base by forcing them to do something that’s absurd.

./facepalm