Guild Wars 2

My thoughts on issue fixes, and balancing DH from a pvp/wvw roaming perspective:

Virtues: f1 should have higher base damage. No reason to use it unless it’s traite for. I like f2, but would appreciate if the ending lag after landing was removed. f3 needs to be instant cast due to the 4-second stunbreak exploit.

Longbow: Lovely weapon, had lots of fun! Some minor, yet important fixes though: #1 should have increased velocity. #2 should have a 5 second cd. No changes to #3. #4’s vigor should be 1.5 second or 2 second ticks. Also, should be fireable backwards. #5 should have a 50 second cd. Finally, add on to one of the 2 longbow traits a longbow cd reduction.

Traps: As is, they’re awful. I’m sorry guys, I know the devs put a lot of work into making these traps look beautiful, but in pvp they’re awful. They offer next to no sustain, and cds are too long. Cripple should be on Procession of Blades, not Fragments of Faith. Also, Dragon’s Maw should deal multiple hits instead of being a single burst so that it’s condi-damage friendly (yes getting bitten by a dragon hurts, but it also hurts over time if you’re still getting bitten).

Traits:
-Minors: Defender’s Dogma could be rolled into Big Game Hunter, and Pure of Sight could be rolled into Heavy Light. Imo, these minor traits weren’t very well thought out. For new minor traits, perhaps give us one that deals with cripple/vulnerability/burning in some way, and another that deals with virtues in some way.

-Adept: Zealot’s aggression should be a 10% damage modifier. Piercing Light should also reduce trap cds, and/or give a strong effect to traps, like causing weakness in addition to giving bleeding.

-Master: Dulled senses should be a cripple on critical hit, or cripple on hit trait; it’s boring, but more reliable cripple access. Could also cause weakness, as we have little access to it otherwise. Imo Hunter’s determination could be the trait that reduces longbow cds. Bulwark could reduce the recharge of f3.

-Grand Master: Big Game Hunter should reduce the recharge of Spear of Justice imo (to around 12-15 seconds), otherwise good trait. Heavy Light only applies to longbow users, and as such should offer something else (maybe the longbow cd reduction, or cripple?). Hunter’s Fortification should give us and nearby allies the Resistance boon. Guardians seriously need this boon.

Ezrael.6859:

The Longbow feels good in concept but the auto-attack projectiles are far too slow and have similar tracking issues in moving combat that the Scepter does.

The auto-attack projectile velocity needs to be increased to counter this and improve it’s ranged accuracy.

Symbol of Energy should fire behind also, like Warrior Longbow and Thief Shortbow.

Dragonhunter Virtues are clunky and awkward and lose all synergy with Virtue traits because of their cast times. The F1 blind, F2 condi clear, F3 stun break and stability (especially when stomping). F2 leap is also clunky and delayed because of the cast time.
And of course activating Virtues while channeling Renewed Focus is impossible with these.

The Dragonhunter Virtues need to be changed to instant cast.

I completely agree with the symbol. Would be great, and not at all op for the symbol to be able to be fired backwards. As for our virtues, I agree with you on at least one point. Yes, instant casts are needed, namely f3. As is, you can abuse the f3 by casting and interrupting it in order to receive a stun break, but not set it into full cool down. Simple fix is to make it instant cast. However, I disagree with f1 being instant cast.

In my opinion, f2 shouldn’t be instant cast. If traited for the damage trait, it is a very powerful skill, and needs very tactical use outside of being an “oh kitten, condi cleanse.”

Just a thing I found about Shield of Courage (f3). If you have Indomitable courage traited in the Virtues line (breaks stun and grants stab on f3) then use shield of courage, you first break stun then you begin the 1/4sec cast time, and finally you have your shield, stab, and aegis.

This is exploitable; you can cast it to break the stun, and then if you’re fast enough, can hit esc, or roll backwards to interrupt the cast. It goes on 3sec ‘interrupt’ cool down, and you can do it again. So this is essentially a stun break every 3 seconds if you have fast fingers. I believe the Jalis Legend’s elite skill on revenant suffers from this same issue.

Note to ANET devs: An acceptable way to fix this is to make f3 instant cast. No ifs, ands, or buts. Instant cast, please. AnUNACCEPTABLE way to fix this issue would be to make the f3 go into cool down if interrupted in that 1/4 second.

LughLongArm.5460:

Rangers are not not the only class with taunt, mesmers got it – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mirror_of_Anguish

Yo I heard you like taunts, so I put up this mirror to taunt your taunting taunter so that we’re both taunted at each other.

It can only affect three people (NOT including yourself) at a time, and cures 1 condition per pulse afaik.

Darksteel.8412:

lol…if anything medi guard needs buffed, the burn guard needs nerf….but only burn, power medi guard is a joke now tbh….gimmick build with high fail rate vs any decent build…nerf burn if you have trouble with guards, have trouble vs medi guards…that’s just lol… power medi needs buff tbh

Not true, I’m doing just fine on my power med guard. Have won skirmishes against rampage warriors, a condi mes, lb rangers, and a cele d/d. Really only having trouble against shatter mes.

In a pvp scenario, if I’m attacking someone, and I dodge their attack, I would want my pet to keep attacking. If my dodging forced my pet to dodge, that would drop my dps slightly.

Jaysin X.6740:

this has been brought up before and I’m not fan, for similar reasons as slingblade and bloodpyrope. I’d rather they put a dodge on f3 and give the pet it’s own endurance.

This. This is a good solution imo.

Here’s all the builds I’m going to try. Note: this is from a pvp-perspective, gonna run full traps for pve, of course

Warning: Wall of Text.

WvW Zerging with a PUGmander: http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgIGrAGcBJg~
-Stats: Zerker with enough valk and soldiers mixed in to get about 3000 armor, and 17k health.
-Weapons: Longbow/Staff
-Utils: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Stand your Ground, Purging Flames, Dragon’s Maw
-Idea behind this build: This is intended to be a back-line guardian that empowers the front line, and deals solid damage in fights through symbols + true-shot. Wings of Resolve is intended to be used as an emergency escape mechanism/catch up and heal the PUGmander. Dragon’s maw is meant to be used during baits, pirate-shipping, or retreats.
I really don’t expect this build to work well, I just want to play with some new toys while at least being somewhat useful lol

WvW zerging; dragonhunter along with some AH guardian front-liners: http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgIG5AXsBJQ~
Stats: Soldiers primarily, with about 30% crit chance. Aim is 3200+ armor, and 19k health.
-Weapons: Longbow/Staff
-Utils: Shelter, Purging Flames, Stand Your Ground, Hold the Line, Renewed Focus
-Idea behind this build: This is a sort of-frontliner build that charges alongside the front-line, but does not leap with them. F3 is meant to be used for pushes (block incoming damage for frontliners), or back-pedaling.

Spvp Mid-assaulter: http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgIG5AXsBJQ~
-Stats: Marauder Amulet, or Knights amulet (see below) if uncomfortable with Marauder squishiness.
-Weapons: Longbow/Greatsword.
-Sigils: Fire& Air for GS, Energy & Leeching/Hydromancy for Longbow. If Marauder amulet, consider using Air & energy on GS.
-Rune: A rune that gives powe and/or ferocity for marauder ammy, rune of the Pack for Knight’s.
-Utils: Shelter, typical meditations, RF. If you already have 2+ bunkers/mid-fighters, consider taking Dragon’s Maw, and Purity (healing trap) and being a side capper.
-Idea: The idea here is to similar to most med-guards. You’ll want to start out on Greatsword, and get your burst in before the opponent suspects it, and switch to longbow for the kill if they try retreating. Use your f2 to land true-shots, and WW on gs. In general, you’ll want to stay out of the center of the fray, only entering for JI bursts, and use true-shot-stability for safe-stomps. This lets you save your F3 for when your team really needs it.
-Note: For Knight’s amulet, you’ll want crit-chance runes, and air/fire sigils to make up for the lost ferocity you had with marauder’s. Your health will be really low, so you’ll need all the condi cleanse you can get (smiter’s boon, full medis, RF elite to renew your F2).

Wvw Roaming: http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgIG3AOoBaw~
-Stats: Berserker’s primarily. Aim for about 40-50% crit, 2900-3100 armor, and 16k+ health (to at least survive mesmer bursts).
-Weapons: Longbow/X. Recommended to use either GS, or sword/f.
-Rune: Pack if 40% crit chance, Travelers if you’ll have 50% crit.
-Utils: Vary based on encounter.
-I hesitate to post a roaming build, because an excellent roamer will change his/her utils and traits to meet the situation. The link I posted is for a generic build against classes that will have at least a little cc, good mobility, and some condi pressure. Anyways, some tips here:
-If up against Zerker-builds: I’d try using Purity (heal trap), fragments of faith (5 aegis’ on 45sec cd), kittenite condition, and renewed focus. You’re going to want to throw out your f1, and use f2 frequntly to get in your bursts, so you’ll need RF.
-If up against mesmers and thieves: Use shelter heal, typical meditations, and dragon’s maw for the elite. It is unlikely you’ll be frequently landing F1, so you might want to switch your GM trait to Heavy light (arrow knockback). CC is the way to go with these guys. Also, better to use sword/f, and use the focus mastery trait to get that protection.
-If up against condi-heavy builds: Definitely use GS. You’ll want all the mobility you can get to either burst these guys down, or run away if need be. Use Purity for the heal, & typical meditations, RF elite. Take the heavy light GM trait to keep them at a distance for a little longer.

What Lahm said is excellent advice, and very accurate from my experiences! Condi engi is one of the toughest matchups in general.

In my half dozen or fights against condi engis (a couple running perplexity), scepter has been the most useful weapon against them. Scepter alone won’t bust through their sustain, so you have to watch for their block, and time your JI + burst very well.

I know it’s less fun to do this, but I would honestly recommend running away from this fight if possible. Condi engis, and specifically ones with perplexity runes just turn out to be cheapasses as roamers lol. I say deny them their fun since they are cheesy enough to pay 60g+ just to be impossible to beat in1v1 type scenarios.

I’m gonna say it really depends on what they do with that first GM trait of the DH spec. (Hunter’s Fortification: Apply protection in an area when you activate virtues). It’s obviously fairly weak, and boring as is, but they did say that this trait would likely see change before HoT ships, so fingers crossed!

I’m thinking they might make shelter a consecration though by the time HoT ships (QQ more, but this is most likely what they’ll do unless they just leave it unclassified). In that case, abandoning the traditional med-guard in favor of Radiance/Virtues/DH might be fun to toy around with! Purging flames, f2 (x2 with renewed focus), and wall of reflection + projectile finishers for condi cleanse, either a trap for more cc, or CoP for stunbreak/more cleanse, and primary damage coming from Longbow 2 + sword 3+ torch 4. Survivability will come from being able to utilize WoR, and distancing well, and landing primary damage skills at the right times. Chasing some1 would probably look like sword 2 + 1 spam + f2 immob + sword 3 + weapon swap, and longbow them down.

[sPVP, #5]:
Hey Heim! I’ve been playing a lot of SB/GS celestial hybrid ranger recently (it’s so much fun! Ranger is so much fun lol). I like the #5 build there that you put up for pvp, but I find this one to be slightly better in terms of survival:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-JV-g;2FVx-p2VEF-0;9k22;1bZ_;0147056147;43K07U;1cV19cV190e

It’s very similar to yours. It also leans more heavily towards the condi side than the power side. I love to pop wolf’s f2, swap pets (for quickness), and then mow through the shortbow skills (plus sharpening stones if I have condis on me). It puts on a TON of bleed, and people usually hit their panic buttons at this point lol. Maul crits are pretty meh though (2-3k tops). I mainly use the gs for a small burst, then some sustain before switching back to sb.

Lemme know what you think!

Was roaming in wvw yesterday, and I encountered an engi. He threw a net on me, and after a single grenade barrage + Rifle 5, I died (from 15.5k hp and 3k defence). Bug or not, I really hope this gets dealt with, the damage is ridiculous, and unfair.

Why does everyone seem to think taunt should be put on guardian shield?

-Shield already has a control skill
-The animation of shield 4 lends itself more to a daze/knockback.
-Doesn’t make too much sense, you blast someone in the face with a wave of light, and now they just uncontrollably want to run at you?

IMO taunt would make more sense on a spirit weapon, or perhaps a signet.

I’ve only tested sigil of ice a little bit, but in my opinion, sigil of hydromancy is much more useful:

-It does damage (about 1.2k crit on a fairly offensive power based build)
-Same cooldown
-Longer chill duration.
-Controllable, happens on weapon swap, not randomly while attacking enemies.

If they buffed sigil of ice to have a 7 second cooldown, it might be worth taking.

Why do so many people think shield #4 needs taunt? IMO, the animation and feel of the skill lends itself more towards a daze or even a knockback. Also it just wouldn’t make sense…

“That guy just blasted me in the face with a wave of light! Yeah, I’m totally going to wanna run towards him now!”

I’ve managed to get off the full heal from this signet the same way I’ve managed to always succeed at casting signet of resolve: Pair this cast with either a blind, aegis block, or focus 5 skill. If you got something like a mesmer focus wall, or a pull incoming, pop f3 stab! With that being said, if you’ve invested that far into virtues, RF is a superior choice anyhow. This signet is great for a bunker/tanky/healing build, but for zerg, or solo roaming, I’d agree that this has no place in wvw.

Yep, I’d say the traditional med guard (your 2nd build) is a much better roamer just due to it’s increased mobility, and your increased blinds and blocks. It’s hard to go wrong with this build!

That being said, I’d like to chip in my 2 cents on GS/H. It is definitely viable solo, but it is very weak against high vit/toughness/condi damage builds (P/D thieves, trap rangers in particular). The key to Gs/H is hit first, hit hard, and don’t let em breathe! Know your counters (D/D ele, heavy condi builds), and either destroy them near the start, or bait out their attacks, and hit em when their skills are on cd, and they’re out of endurance (so you can land cc). Gs/H is amazing if you have allies. Entering a fight as Gs/H without an opponent targeting you gives you a ridiculous advantage!

Have fun roaming!

I disagree. If someone is running a vanguard type build that doesn’t use meditations, they might want to take strength of the fallen over smiter’s boon. As a guardian who runs pvt for wvw, I rarely find myself using my healing skill (and when I do, it’s to retreat, and block attacks), so strength of the fallen would be superior in that case.

On the other hand, if I was dueling, I don’t plan on getting downed, and would be popping my heal every time it’s on cd, so whether or not I’m running medis (which I likely would be), smiter’s boon would be superior here.

Almost everything about tomes has already been said on previous pages, but I would really like this change. It would encourage a lot more build diversity, and people might actually move away from meditation guardians for pvp and wvw. Some thoughts on these 2 new elites though are as follows. The changes are great, but ANET, please be careful about numbers/scaling!

-As is now, Renewed focus heals 2k, provides 2 seconds of invulnerability, and pretty much gives you another block, another blind, and another 3 condis removed, which is a hell of a lot of utility all in one 72s cool down skill. Heck, even on 90s cooldown, this is amazing, and worth taking over tomes.
-Signet of Courage: The PBAoE heal will likely be the most attractive part of this elite. The full heal is nice, but 3 minute cool down will probably scare people away from taking this elite JUST for the full heal. I’d recommend the PBAoE heal be fairly significant (1.5k with good scaling, or 2k hp). As for the full heal itself: Let it function almost exactly like tome of courage’s current #5 skill.

-“Feel my Wrath”: I really like the idea! This would be amazingly useful for a well-organized group going in for a spike after a boss’ defiance bar drops, or a WvW zerg making a push forward against an enemy zerg. Considering the cool down and removal of boon duration that we previously got by speccing into virtues, I think a fair amount of quickness would be 3-4 seconds, and 7-10 seconds for the fury. If this skill is instant cast like most shouts (which it should be), then 3 seconds would likely be more appropriate.

You can absolutely make hammer a viable choice for roaming. It doesn’t provide much mobility which is why most med guards prefer GS and Sw/F. As an enthusiasitc hammer user, I’ve found the following about guardian hammer:

Hammer has amazing synergy with greatsword, and offhand focus. I would recommend NOT pairing hammer with sword, offhand torch, or mace. With greatsword, hammer comboes amazingly well, and puts out some amazing damage, as well as just enough CC to get you through most 1v1, and maybe 1v2 encounters. Hammer also comboes really well with scepter/focus. Scepter’s immob really helps you land MB, and with scepter, you can very steadily move towards your opponent to close the gap meanwhile dealing damage, and switch to hammer for immob, launch, ring, and MB.

Hammer is a team weapon: While it is viable and very stylish in 1v1 duels, it has a LOT of potential in havoc squads, or small scale battles. Banish is great for downing/interrupting rallies, immob is very helpful if you’re bursting down a target, and mighty blow comboes with fields.

Put one trait point into radiance: That blind REALLY helps with landing the auto attack chain. I’ve been interrupted frequently when trying to land this chain. Chances are, if people dodge the chain, they’ll suffer minor symbol damage afterwards, so it’s not a complete loss which is nice. Blind on F1 may also help with landing Hammer 4

Zealot’s Embrace and Banish combo together excellently: Whether you immob them, then launch, or launch, then immob, you have many options afterwards!

There are ways to guarantee a ring of warding trap: Greatsword 5 pull + swap to hammer + ring of warding, swap to hammer, sigil of hydromancy chill to slow them down + ring of warding, banish + zealot’s embrace + ring of warding, or of course the classic JI + ring of warding. I would recommend not using JI + ring of warding to start a battle because you just blew a stunbreak right there. Use it as a counter to some1 running away, or CCing you!

For sigils, I highly recommend using sigil of hydromancy/intelligence with hammer, and your other sigil should be energy, or a chance on crit if you did sigil of intelligence. Hydromancy sigil comboes very well with landing bursty attacks right after switching to hammer. If you have low crit chance, high ferocity, then consider sigil of intelligence. MB + glacial heart + a hammer auto attack will get you 6-7k damage right off the bat.

Keep in mind that while hammer is good for burst damage and CC, it’s not that great for sustain. If you pair hammer with gs, which gives you a LOT of damage, you’re going to need more sustain, so definitely be running shelter, and purity/strength in numbers over glacial heart. GS/Hammer is well suited to 1v1 up through 3v3, but any more, and you should opt for X/focus instead of pairing with greatsword.

I think making SW invulnerable, or increasing their resistance to zergs would be a bit too much of a buff. Personally, I like it that counterplay for SW could involve killing, or CCing them. They could use some additional toughness/health though (maybe 2.8k defense, and 25k hp at lvl 80) so they don’t die to random cleaves in small scale battles.

Imo, the best change to SWs would involve making them go into cool down as soon as they’re summoned (30s of weapon, followed by 15s of no weapon, pretty fair imo), and also adding a bit of utility to their command skills:
-sword command as a leap finisher
-hammer command causes weakness
-bow auto attack heals, and bow command also blinds
-shield command still breaks stuns, but grants aegis and targets allies, not foes

I’m pretty disappointed about the change to glacial heart. Although it doesn’t thematically fit with the theme of a guardian, GH offered a LOT to guardian. It offered a nice burst, which was my main reason for taking it, but it also gave us some soft CC on a weapon that already had problems with kiting. It was perfect, as all you need with hammer are a couple of mighty blows, and a single auto attack chain to get some decent damage in. That 3 seconds of chill was perfect for just this! Ever since the internal CD of GH was dropped to 15s, I’ve loved using hammer in pvp. In fact, the only time I don’t use GH is when I pair hammer with greatsword, and hammer becomes more of a CC weapon rather than my primary dps (would take purity, or strength in numbers over GH for more survival).

I don’t like the change to GH (Virtuous Mallet) for the following reasons:
1. The trait is now in virtues? Ok, first of all, if I go into virtues, i’m going to want absolute resolution over this trait any day. In my opinion, the trait fits much better in Honor or Valor.
2. No more soft CC. I find that most of the time when I’m using a hammer, I’m chasing opponents, and trying to get in that MB while struggling to keep up mobility wise. GH offered that soft CC which was a big help, and now that’s gone. Also, we received no soft CC (well there’s that master trait in Radiance, but hammer guardians likely aren’t going to trait into radiance as it doesn’t offer very compelling Grandmasters for a power based, or support build), no swiftness, and no increase to mobility with these new traits/changes.
3. No more burst of damage? This was the main reason people took GH from what I gather. To maintain what GH is right now, Virtuous Mallet could cause a fiery blast (similar to sigil of fire proc, except blue) with the damage component being retained, along with some other effect (boon removal, daze, cripple, or slow). This would make Virtuous Mallet comparable to GH.
4. Slow is great, and this trait will give guardians a lot of access to slow, however it’s shifting hammer from more of a burst/damaging weapon to that of a support weapon (no longer on crit, and the trait is in the virtues line). Also, in most pvp situations, I doubt slow is going to trump aoe burst damage + UNBLOCKABLE soft cc that GH brought.

tl;dr: If this change to Glacial Heart goes through, I’ll be QQing because my favorite weapon is likely going to become a lot less viable in pvp in comparsion to other options Guardian now has.

Heheh, this video should be stickied!

In all seriousness though: this is a problem common to many projectiles. Scepter’s auto attack makes this problem look pretty drastic of course. But lets be real here: In an actual exchange, no one is going to mini strafe/zig-zag to that extent. In fact, I have yet to see anyone do it for more than a second (then again, I’m not top tier in spvp so perhaps this nonsense goes on top tier matches). Sure, it will get them out of a few scepter auto attacks, but that’s not where guard’s dps comes from. If you try to run away from a guardian while mini-strafing, the guardian is going to catch up to you. My argument was that scepter makes for a good anti-kiting tool. Constantly firing orbs of wrath, while meanwhile moving closer to your opponent (assuming you’re dodging when you need to, not getting soft or hard CCed) is going to increase the likelihood of one of two things:
1. You catch up to them, and can swap to another weapon for somer serious hurt.
2. They suffer a fair amount of damage while still trying to kite you.

Note: I’m not saying it’s impossible that your opponent is going to successfully kite you AND avoid scepter damage, it could totally happen. It’s just that it’s rather unlikely from my experience. Using scepter makes that possibility much less likely compared to using sword.

Can some1 explain to me the QQ on scepter auto attack? Maybe there’s a video some1 can link me that demonstrates just how dramatically “bad” scepter auto is because I can’t find such a video. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen some1 complain about it on these forums, yet I’ve extensively used scepter in both spvp and wvw, and in general I’ve observed this:

People side stepping the auto attacks: Uh yeah, not unless they run around zig-zagging constantly. I have yet to see someone do this lol. Even then, latency issues will likely result in them getting hit anyways. When people strafe around me, the first and maybe second scepter auto attack will miss, but the rest will be dead on. Not a big deal considering how much damage each orb can hit. At close range (130 to 600), every scepter auto attack will hit, especially if the target isn’t running away from me.

People running away: The only time I’ve observed trouble with scepter auto attack is when people are running away from me, and get about 600-700 away from me or more. At this point, they out run the max range of scepter simply because the projectiles move so slowly. But if they’re running away from me, they’re not going to be attacking in the first place.
Essentially, anyone who is fighting vs. scepter guardian has to choose: Either attack the guard, and eat scepter auto attack, or run away, avoid scepter auto attack.
/shrug

I had this thought in the shower the other day: What if we switched focus and shield #5s?

Shield #5: Gives a shield which blocks 4 attacks. If the shield is not broken after 3 seconds, it explodes, healing yourself and nearby allies for 1700(0.9). Blast finisher.
Add a 1/2 second daze to shield #4.

Focus #5: (it would now look or feel pretty similar to the miracle’ Wrath of the Gods’ from Dark souls) create a bubble (radius is close to that of a symbol’s) that absorbs incoming projectiles, pushes back, and damages foes for 3 seconds. Detonate the bubble earlier to give yourself and nearby allies retaliation. (not a blast finisher either way).

This would maintain focus as an offensive weapon, while actually allowing shield to BLOCK ATTACKS like it should. I’m all about having unique weapon skills for a weapon based on what class is using it, but as it is right now, shield seems way too un-shield like.

Imo, a good way to balance merciful intervention would be to allow the guard to teleport to the target location regardless of whether or not there are people there. As we are right now, imagine the following scenario: You’re in a fight, you just got CCed, and you know a huge coordinated burst by the engi, ele, and a power necro, or LB ranger, or med guard is coming up. How do you avoid this? You can use a stun break, and use shelter, stun break and use renewed focus, stun break and dodge. Yes, all of those work, yet they all involve the guardian forcing your best skills into cd. But imagine if you could essentially blink out of the situation. People would actually have to work for that burst, rather than taking for granted that they can just burst down a med guard because med guards don’t have stab. I don’t think such a change would be over powered, because you still wouldn’t have any condi clear or stun break on this skill, but it would become a lot more fun, and people would actually start to use it.

Nope. Just nope. The cele ele D/D meta, played by any player worth his or her salt is going to hard counter even the best med zerk guardian. As someone who is obsessed with being able to win, or make the opponent retreat in 1v1s, and has had countless duels with eles in both spvp, and wvw, I have to say that you CAN beat an ele who isn’t running the meta, and you can do so pretty easily so long as you avoid certain attacks (fire grab, and burning speed, earthquake, ride the lightning/updraft combo for D/D eles) I’ve beaten cele staff, and zerker staff eles, but not once have I claimed victory over a decent cele ele D/D. They have too much regen, protection up time, and damage (their range is greater than yours, they can kite you, and put on quite a few conditions every time they’re in earth attune).

I run a pretty standard med zerk, using either GS and Sw/F, GS and H, or H and Sc/F. H and Sc/F does the best against eles; guardian scepter is a pretty good tool against those people who think they’re just going to kite you around all day lol. It’s funny to see them eat your slow moving auto attacks, not thinking that they’re going to have to heal any time soon at which point it’s practically too late for em. If you want to run med zerk guardian, you might have better luck trying Hammer or GS paired with Sc/F vs. an ele. GS and Sw/F just does not cut it…

A small anecdote (no good news): I introduced my friend to guild wars 2, and he started playing about 1 month ago. He really liked D/D ele. I showed him meta battle, and he took the standard D/D ele, except with ether renewal over signet of restoration. I can’t say he was very good at pvp, but I could NOT kill this guy…. and I was running the typical metas for med zerk guard too. Even a nooby elementalist has enough sustain to make the fight long and drawn out, and then a good one is going to know his/her rotations inside and out, and be able to out-pressure your heals. Once your skills are on CD, you’re done for. Note: I DID beat my buddy…. after 3-5 minutes of fighting… he made a slip up, and it costed him lol.

Sorry, I tend to be one of those long-winded forums posters, but as a final word: Yes, try the burning guard. I did spvp with a burning guard hybrid (6/0/6/1/1) the other day, and I had two essentially 1v1 situations with eles. One was with a fresh air, the other was with a D/D ele who was okay (at best) in pvp. I beat both of them. The constant burning ticks really made a huge difference, and they didn’t get cleansed often if at all because it was just a single condition. The eles both probably thought I was a typicall med zerk lol. Hybrid or condi guards might have better luck against eles than a typical med zerk.

Well neither med zerk, nor condi (or hybrid) guardian is that big on team support. Their role in pvp comes from being able to add focus, and burst down a target insanely quickly (if you get a thief who doesn’t manage his stealths/evades nicely, you will destroy him/her in about 1-3 seconds). If you like support/buffing team mates, there’s a meta build for that too (AH bunker, and variants thereof).

Med Zerk guard has trouble with really mobile classes because we don’t have much access to soft CC like cripple, or chill. We have some immobilize, sure, but that’s generally only good for getting in a couple hits at best. Condi guards on the other hand need only to keep a stack of burning on to get a good portion of their dps ticking constantly. With scepter and VoJ, this becomes fairly easy to do.

As a med zerk guard with 4 points into virtues though, you CAN give your team mates on demand condi cleanse, or 3 stacks of stability for stomps, so there’s that lol.

If we’re talking the meta build (GS & Sw/F, Med Zerk) which actually has a very strong 1v1 game, then yes, you will have trouble with kiting, and mobility. For this reason, many guards choose to run rune of the traveler for wvw for that 25% movement speed. If you manage your CC, and teleports properly, you can dish out enough damage in bursts so that kiting is less of an issue for you. I like to run scepter instead of sword. The ranged pressure from scepter auto attack (which is actually fairly strong if the opponent is running in a straight line and not side stepping them) usually forces out some dodges, and the immob helps you get in some nice burst (immob + weapon swap + sigil of hydromancy proc + Binding blade/pull + whirling wrath for example).

Additionally, you could try running sigil of hydromancy if you run GS or Hammer for an extra burst damage (hits 1.2k on crit), and a few seconds of chill. Sigil of air/fire are well suited for sword due to its high attack rate, but weapons like hammer or gs where you get in some burst, but generally only get in a few hits at time work better with a non-chance on crit sigil imo. I find it to help me get in a good auto attack chain, also force a dodge roll, and MAYBE a condi cleanse!

Overall though, once you really get the hang of the class, you’ll have amazing 1v1 game. Assuming you’re fighting an equally experienced opponent, there aren’t many 1v1s you will lose, except for freaking D/D cele eles, and their cosntant regen, as well as turret engis.

If you want a build that is REALLY focused on 1v1, consider trying a condi guardian, or hybrid guardian (maybe even one that runs spirit weapons). They’re not nearly as susceptible to kiting, constantly deal a lot of damage through burning while still maintaining decent survivability with meditations/monk’s focus trait.

I haven’t played condi or hybrid guardians that much, but there are certainly some viable builds out there!

One of the more offensive burning builds utilizing meditations which I found really fun, is a hybrid build of 6/2/6/0/0, with focus instead of shield. Shield is alright, but it honestly needs some work to be on par with focus. Focus provides much better personal protection, and damage output.

I believe carrion is the main stat distribution used, and as for the rune, you can try krait, flame legion, or balthazer to name a few (ideally one that deals with burning duration, or damage).

Condi guardians can be really fun, and have a really great 1v1 game, however they lose out in team battles due to a lack of team support. From what I’ve heard, they have a leg up on engis, at least more so than med zerk guardians do!

I feel like I should probably play around with this build some more before I post back here, but just an initial impression:

The build I used: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVUQNAR5dlsApbolDxaI8DRRDRlTNYHBjQXe9BUABAA-TlzHABB8AACRFChUWwkSweUCZiaD1eQAGSJSHqi4jShq3fwBNDepjAgrAQAAEgbezAgde0duzjuzCBUeMA-w

How It’s supposed to work: The idea is to make use of the Mace of Justice trait, and do most of the dodge rolling/healing while on mace to maximize healing done. Also, this trait saves you from having to invest more in cleric’s gear, so you can maintain at least some semblance of med guard dps. This build didn’t end up having a lot of burst damage, and honestly it didn’t need it! I aimed at keeping crit chance around 33%, just enough to get an occasional crit, and proc vigorous precision. The food I chose was based on my stockpile of current food that I use for my regular zerker roaming build, so I don’t doubt that there is a better food choice out there.

I wasn’t on for long, so I didn’t get that many great encounters, but my impression from the few 1v1s, and 1v2s I did have:

This build is very effective against most power based builds in a 1v1 setting. Seconds after switching to mace, my health would practically be at full again due to the regen on block, selfless daring heals, and 4k heal on block. The build does fall out against heavy condition pressure, so I’ll bet that trapper rangers, and p/d perplexity rune thieves would be especially hard matchups.

If anyone has any suggestions (especially cheap foods that work better than life steal on crit), or changes to traits they’d like me to try out, I’d be happy to take the runes for another spin, and let everyone know how it worked out!

Personally, I love the defender runes! It’s a departure from the typical zerk builds. At one point, a typical med zerk sustains itself just as well as this build does, but as the fight lasts longer, and meditations are on cool down, the regen, 4k heal on block, and selfless daring heals really start to shine! Healing power works great on this build, especially with Pure of Heart and Selfless Daring. I would daresay this build would work fairly well in a 2v2, and maybe 3v3 situation. This situation is fairly rare in wvw though. I would not recommend this rune for someone who likes running havoc squads. If you’re purely a guardian roamer, and expect only small scale battles, then consider trying this rune out with a meditation build! It may work well with a shout build as well, I have yet to try this though.

Kichiyou.2934:

Don’t spose the op’er has tried the defender runes? Assuming you (or “someone”) has, was it better than Altruism? (For solo AH s/f w/ mace/focus offhand)

I’m actually about to make my 6th defender rune later today! Was planning on posting here with feedback on it after I take it for a spin.

Also, solo AH is a thing? Are we talking pve or wvw? I have seen my fair share of guard roamers in wvw, and not once have I seen one that didn’t utilize gs, or hammer with x/focus offhand unless s/he was running some sort of condi damage build.

Much of this has already been covered by some of our more comprehensive posts above, but here’s my 2 cents. I believe some of the most important fixes that could be made to guardian which would further increase build diversity would be:

- Various trait fixes in both virtues, and radiance. I can think of a grandmaster trait or two that need reworking… I’m looking at YOU Radiant Retaliation! Seriously, broken traits aside, we just straight up have traits that no one ever uses for good reasons. This can definitely be fixed.

- Rework Spirit weapons. Nearly everything about them needs reworking. They’re a good source of damage, and great in 1v1 duels, however that’s about it. Literally, they lose almost all of their value as soon as you go from 1v1 to 2v2. Also, It’s rather annoying that you need to invest about 6 to 8 trait points (Condition Damage build, or Power build respectively) to even make spirit weapons mildly viable in said 1v1 situation. People have made many suggestions on how to fix them, ranging from letting their cool downs start as soon as they’re summoned, or instead reducing their cool downs. Additionally, reducing the amount of trait lines they’re spread across would be great. Example: The benefits incurred from Expeditious Spirit, Spirit Weapon mastery, and Improved Spirit Weapon Duration don’t need to be three separate traits.

-Signets: Signets need some love too. Besides signet of resolve, the other signets are fairly lackluster, even when traited for. An excellent signet trait would encourage people to invest some trait points in radiance, and maybe take one or two signets which could lead to some interesting builds!

-Some access to bleeding: This would definitely increase build diversity without breaking lore too much. Access to bleed through 1h sword, greatsword, and various traits would make sense. Don’t forget: While we are magical, we still use physical weapons for the most part, and for sword/gs users, we’re still cutting down our foes! Guards being able to maintain 6-10 stacks of bleeding in addition to burning would make for more interesting condition damage, as well as hybrid builds.

-Glacial Heart: This trait could be changed to remove the chill, keep the damage the same, and change the animation to that of a blue fiery explosion for aoe damage, and burning. This would increase condi build diversity, and especially hybrid builds, as hammer would no longer solely be a power weapon! As for losing the chill aspect of glacial heart, increased access to chill would be our access to soft CC that everyone so desires. This has potential as a future specialization! Trading out the wrath/burning theme we have now for a theme of justice and pursuit (slowing down the enemy) sounds promising!

-Shield needs to be brought up to par, and become the defensive analog of focus. Plenty of great, and sensible suggestions have already been made about shield. Take your pick, ANET!

Honestly, I think this was a welcomed “bug” in WvW.

-It’s hard to do and takes skill. Lucentfir is right; I’ve practiced this a LOT with both sword 2, and JI. There is a fairly small window in which this will succeed (when your character model is considered “level” with the target).

-We have no ways to escape/disengage. As is, we couldn’t even run away from an obese sleepy 100 yr old turtle with a car tied to its leg. This bug presented one way that guardians could actually escape possible dangers such as zergs, or being outnumbered, although it is fairly situational.

Removing it ain’t cool ANET at last let us continue to do this with JI!

Build name: Shoutcracker (lol)

I really like the shouts, but not the bow (It’s superior for conquest, I just find warrior LB to be boring), and I really like skullcracker but not its survivability, so I decided to mix the two!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAR5enMdQlH25BmCCpIGoKoQeABgye4GSfCddKA-TpRBABDcEAM+BAQ1+DacQAIrMAAXAAA

I actually tested this guy in pvp for quite a while, and I found….
-Lower damage than skullcracker
-AMAZING survivability, especially with mace/shield’s blocks combined with the shouts.
-In 1v2 type scenarios, I play it evasively and defensive. I maintain full adrenaline for Adrenal health. This coupled with blocks and shouts makes the sustain very high.
-Has fair 1v1 play, and is pretty good at bunkering. In most 1v1 and 1v2 situations.
-Rather weak against bursts of conditions. In particular condi necros, engis, and melee condi rangers were problematic.
-Pretty much HAVE to use shield 4 to hit mace f1. Against necros, guards, and engis, this doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem. The more mobile classes will outpace me if I just walk up and try to use f1 on mace though.
-When I DO hit mace f1, and my opponents are out of stunbreaks, they’ll tend to either retreat, or use up their heals immediately afterwards. Hitting mace f1 becomes amazingly useful in 2v2 situations when I’m focusing on some1!

Discussion:

First, I’d like to mention that I ran this build without cleansing ire originally. I took 1 trait point out of defence, and put it into Discipline for the might on weapon swap. Honestly, I was able to deal pretty well without cleansing ire. I know shoutbow is much better for conquest due to might stacking, and f1 + cleansing ire, but I’m running this build more for fun than for dominating! The lack of might stacking is probably a weak point of this build. I found that I was able to easily wear down just about every class I faced in a 1v1, or 2v2, with the exception of cele engis (too much kitten regen), and one necromancer (sorry, not familiar with necro builds. I think she was a condi/sustain build, her damage output wasn’t amazing).

Why Rampage: Mostly for the luls. I usually take banner instead for deathmatches, or when I’m running with friends that I can trust. I take rampage for solo queue though.

Why Not Signet of Rage: I just feel like 25 seconds of having a couple boons isn’t really worth it. Especially since I get my fury fix from “For Great Justice,” and GS f1. Signet of Rage helps in 1v1 and 2v2 type situations, but when you got 3-4 people on mid, Rampage’s skills really shine (at least from my experiences)! Of course, you do get screwed over by mesmer’s who run moa lol. Rampage has a lower cd than moa, and just the #5 skill, and #1 aa chain on rampage totally made it fun for me lol!

All feedback/harsh criticism/Dude you’re an idiot is welcome

I’d really like to hear what this build is especially weak against, and any minor fixes I could do to bolster the build in those scenarios.

Why people are so obsessed with 1v1s: Part of it is inexperience with pvp. Some people don’t truly realize how valuable playing with the team is, and haven’t experienced the joy of winning many matches by putting cleave pressure on the enemy team, while healing/protecting your own team as a guard. 1v1 on the other hand has a fairly black and white outcome, and feels slightly more in your own control. When you become confident enough to go hold a point, or chase down some straggler as a guardian (albeit this may not be the guardian’s most optimal role), and know that you stand an excellent chance, you become more likely to want to engage the enemy in general. For me (and I feel your pain too op), this further lead to me seeking out 2v2, 3v3, etc. type situations where I truly didn’t know what the outcome was. Besides the clearcut distinction between XvX, 1v1ing is such a satisfying, and pride-bolstering feeling lol. Like when you get that one quirky lil butt on the opposing team, you find him/her alone, and then you engage in a 1v1 and come out victor.

Advice to OP: I play on guardian a lot, and I tend to play med zerk builds, or variants thereof. Med zerk has an excellent 1v1 game, and here are some things to keep in mind:
-Save your meditations: You’re crippled/chilled, and kited all the time. Don’t start the battle with JI, or smite condition. Also, use your gap closers that have shorter cool downs (GS 3, Sw2, H2 and 3) rather than JI.
-You get CCed a lot: Med guard suffers from lack of stability. To compensate, you have 2 stun breaks, and an invuln that makes you immune to CC. Use them wisely! I have found that when I use JI to break stuns, and close distance when I have a lot of condis on me, it tends to have its greatest effect.
-Consider using Sigils of Hydromancy: I know it’s popular to use sigils of fire, or air for a med guard, but sigils of hydromancy have really done the trick for me against thieves, necros, mes, and rangers. The burst from the weapon swap does fair damage (1 to 1.2k on a zerk build), plus slows your opponent usually enough to get in an AA chain, or one good skill you wanna hit em with!
-Dodging: Med guard is a very reactive class, and part of being good with 1 is knowing when to dodge. The only thing I can say here, is experience! I find that in group encounters, using your dodges near the beginning helps the most to mitigate bursts, whereas in 1v1s, you want to have 1 dodge in reserve at almost all times in case you either see, or suspect a particular attack coming. Always be thinking of “which attack is coming next?” and think of whether or not it’s worth dodging!

Hope this helps!

As someone fairly experienced playing med guard, I’ll throw in my 2 cents:

P/D thieves are what med guards have a lot of trouble with. I ran into a couple P/D perplexity rune thieves last month in WvW on my guard. After 2 duels with the first, and 3 or 4 duels with the second, I could NOT even get close to beating either of them in 1v1 (I tried all the typical weapon comboes, and trait variants for med guard). After using all my cleanses, these guys still managed to stick on many stacks of confusion/bleed and poison on to me, and were still at nearly full hp themselves. 3k armor, 20k+ hp, and stealth….Maybe I’m doin it wrong, but I’m pretty sure med guard doesn’t counter these guys in WvW. Don’t quote me on that for spvp though lol.

As for zerker thieves, I have been beaten before by a good zerker thief. The key is to wait until the guard is at about half hp, then throw on the dazes and burst em down. Even then, if it’s a well managed guard, they can still come back from it. On the bright side, you can very easily escape a med guard. At most, we’ll have 3 gap closers, and +25% movement speed from travellers rune (which not all med guards run anyways). Hope this helps!

Some general tips when solo-roaming:
-Try to frequently swap out between staff’s symbol of swiftness, sword #2, and GS #3 when roaming. This creates a feeling of fast roaming, albeit you can’t be lazy, and you have to continually press buttons/switch weapons. I’m able to keep up with my +25% movement speed buddies for about 2-4 minutes by doing this, especially if I stand in symbol of swiftness for a few seconds before we head out (pre-stack on 30 seconds or so of swiftness, it helps).

-If in home borderland, and heading east/west/south, pop “Retreat” Because the chance of encountering an enemy before “Retreat” CDs is very very low.

-Rune of the pack is great in both small scale, and 1v1 encounters. The swiftness you get early on helps you keep up, and put on some hurt near the beginning of a fight. Also, you get a very nice distribution of stats, and don’t lose out like you do with traveler runes.

-True, Guardian doesn’t have soft CC which is why you have to be sure to land your big spikes (GS 4 + GS2, Foc 5, Sw 3, Hammer 2, etc.) Some ways I’ve found to increase the chance of landing these spikes, is start out with auto attack. GS auto attack is actually really damaging if the opponent eats it. This often forces them to use gap openers, or dodges which you can respond to with your gap closers, immob, leap, etc.

-Consider trying Sigil of Hydromancy: I used to like sigils of fire (still do for sPvP), but I switched over to sigils of hydromancy for WvW, and absolutely love it. The icy burst from them is like a mini smite condition, plus it often slows them down enough for me to get in a good attack or two. The downside is it’s a really graphic effect, so an experienced opponent would know to dodge or block if you always used weapon swap + immediate burst.

Wouldn’t it be great if some1 with both taunt and fear on them at the same time would just run in place flailing his/her weapon around? This would make my day

Guardians really excel in groups though, and while this isn’t the most glorious thing you can imagine, it’s still a very useful and desired niche that they fill.
If you want to play guard, and excel in 1v1 type situations, an offensive med guard, or a condi burn guard tend to do fairly well.

I know there are counter examples out there, but most classes aren’t designed to handle a 2v1 and win assuming all three participants are of equal skill level. Honestly I’ve never built for a 2v1 scenario, but I imagine that if you have a chance of winning one, then higher sustain zerk med builds, and shout guardians have the tools to increase your chances of victory there.

Just curious, but how do this build do against the burstiest of burst dps? I run a very similar build, but with 3k armor, and 19k hp (slightly less crit and ferocity). It does very well against burst classes, and generally has no problem getting kited, but suffers against heavy condi (can’t finish them off fast enough). What I like about your build is it looks as if it will be a lot better vs. Condi builds (rune of the traveller + greater burst) which is good as that’s something guards have trouble with, but how much of a difference does 400 less armor make vs. Burst warriors, thieves, shatter mes, and a typical med gs/sw & foc guardian?

The build I run in spvp has around 2400 armor, and I must say it’s great, but while my skills are on cd, I just don’t have enough sustain. In wvw, that 3k armor really helps me in 1v1, 2v2,or 3v3 type situations, as I can take a few hits, and be able to wait out cds for healing

Sorry for the long post: What I meant is that any one of those things could be changed/implemented for guardian shield, and I think it would bring shield up to date with the other guardian offhand weapons.

I’ve played with shield a LOT. I’ve tried many different builds (from med zerks, to healing builds, to bunkers) just to try and get shield work. Although I’m one of those people that likes to find niche uses for underused or underrated weapons/builds, I’m going to have to agree with what has been said on this forum: Shield, even with reduced cds and traited, still seems only situational. I would really enjoy if they did one or more of the following for shield:

For shield #4: Increase damage, add a daze, short knockdown/interrupt, increase the duration of protection given, or keep shield #4’s protection buff at 5 seconds in pvp (no need for this nerf).

For shield #5: Actually increase the time of the bubble to 4 seconds… it’s still at 2 seconds, keep bubble time at 2 seconds but allow projectile reflection, keep bubble time at 2 seconds but allow us to block as long as we’re keeping the bubble up (this wouldn’t be op, we’d still be susceptible to conditions, + not be able to move), increase the scaling of healing power on the bubble detonation, gain a boon or even more healing if the bubble is not detonated (you wait out the whole time of the skill), or allow guardians to move after initially using this skill.

I feel that ANET has done certain things right: The protection buff on shield #4 is nice, and fits well with the theme of the shield on a guardian. It’s very nice that it’s team oriented, however 5 seconds isn’t very long if you consider the fact that we have a minimum 20 seconds cd, and a better trade off for protection would be hammer’s perma-protection. Shield #4 is also fairly weak, its damage component is nearly useless. I think that shield should do something other than just give protection to self and allies…. That’s essentially all it does right now…. 5 seconds of protection on 20 seconds cool down, and you have to carefully aim it too.

I really like shield #5. The knockback is really useful when trying to hold points, and revive allies, and the healing on detonation is very nice, but it unfortunately does not scale very well with healing, and the bubble doesn’t last 4 seconds as it promises. Also, the fact that the guardian must stand still to keep this skill active (while having no defence of his/her own) heavily cuts back on survivability, and damage out put. As is, shield #5 is only useful for that knockback + instantly detonate bubble for healing. There is hardly any point (in most situations) to use the skill, and keep the bubble up for more than an instant.

Thank you for the advice, all! I’ll keep this in mind next time I roam!

Hello Guardian forum! I’m posting this as I’ve ran into about a half dozen or more condi thieves over the past week. All of them were running pistol/dagger, and I believe they had runes of perplexity, as at any one time, I would have 2 to 5 stacks of confusion on me.

Now I haven’t done WvW, and any sort of organized pvp for long enough to call myself a pro, but I’m certainly no scrub either. I most enjoy WvW roaming. I of course have a burst med build, with distribution of 0/1/6/6/1, however I like to run GS/Hammer for fun! I’ve actually had a lot of success with this combination even though people tell me that GS is best paired with scepter or sword, and focus. I’ve had successes against every class (including thieves), but this build by thieves just seems to take the cake (away from me) every time

When I fight one, it goes roughly the same without much deviation: I’m not able to push their health much further than half, as they’ll stealth frequently. I am dazed frequently, which is a problem due to their perplexity runes, and no matter how much condi removal I bring (normally, I run the purity trait in Valor, signet of resolve, smite condition, and Contemplation of purity) I seem to have multiple stacks of confusion and poison/bleed on me. And these conditions (especially the confusion) wear me out rather quickly. I do believe I fought a p/d thief at one point, but I’m next to positive she didn’t have runes of perplexity, as we dueled for a good 3-4 minutes, and neither of us could finish the other. It’s those confusion stacks!

My question is, are there any guardians out there who have reasonable success against these guys? I don’t necessarily mean able to chase down and kill them, but at least cause them to retreat indefinitely? If so, what build, weapons, and utilities do you like to use? I’m hoping that with minor trait changes (perhaps sigil changes), or a change of weapons, I could at least put forth an effort that would give me a chance to win. I’m talking like something that if I saw a condi thief out in the distance, and I had like 10-20 seconds, I could switch out traits/weapons/skills, and be ready for that condi thief.

One possibility is that I am indeed a scrub lol! One time I was roaming with a ranger, and we encountered a thief like this. The thief not only managed to survive against the both of us for a good 3+ minutes, but actually forced us to retreat, and picked me off (me being the slower). I mean is there anything I can do vs. a build like this? Perhaps this thief build is very weak against something else, and just so happens to do well against med guards? I don’t want to jump to a conclusion and say that they’re OP, but it’s looking that way to me!

I had this bug too, did a level 2, personal reward level 10, and didn’t get the pristine fractal relic.