Guild Wars 2

Here is a link to item nomenclature which shows effective bonuses per point.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_nomenclature

HappyHour.6241:

Hey guys, sorry for reviving this thread, but I would like to offer a much cheaper build (NO DIVINITIES runes) that according to the effective power, surpasses both Wish and Yishi’s build.

Please note that instead of using a fire sigil for a dagger, I opted on changing it by a ruby orb which seem to bring up the effective power.

Finally, while it may seem that this build is stronger, remember that it comes at cost of less survability, yet not a lot. Therefore, I believe this is the perfect starter set.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.0|8.1p.h2.8.1p.a7|0.0.0.0.0.0|1g.a7.1c.a7.1c.a7.1p.a7.1c.a7.1c.a7|2s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0|0.u36c.u000.a0.0|39.2|0.0.0.0.0|e

That’s pretty solid, mate. The only difference is the layout of the gear from Wish’s set and you don’t use the Omnomberry. When I make slight adjustments to your setup I notice how big of a difference ascended items play next to exotic. Pretty annoying I have to do fractals to reach that type of EP or a crazy amount of WvW.

Bash.7291:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Would it be less synergetic or even too linear or boring to condense traits, utilities, and weapons in to certain trait lines? i.e. Symbol traits go in to Honor and no where else. 1h traits in radiance. 2h traits in zeal. boons/virtues in Virtues. Defensive traits in Valor. Healing/Support traits in honor. etc

Not sure if this was meant for me or the other guy, but personally I think that each tree should have some specialization, but also have traits that can effect multiple aspects of gameplay for the class. Mesmer is a good example, Different trait lines have weapon traits, and seem to be more specialized towards that weapon. but there are also traits in multiple trees that effect phantasms, which are on every weapon. Some are more offensive in the more offensive trees, and then others are defensive in the defensive trees.

Another example is warrior, which has sword/GS traits in the same tree, Axe in another, but also has a generic speed increase when using melee weapons trait, that could benefit no matter what trees you are going into. I think we need some sort of specialization per trait line, but also the right amount of generic traits that could make sense to go say, 20 into a line for. Like my suggestion in radiance to add a chance for torment on crit, you could pick up inner fire at 10 for fury when burning, pick up torment on crit at 20, it the traits work well together, but at the same time you are not limited on weapons. If you wanted to specialize though, you could and go the full 30 for RHS. I think that the specialization of a tree really needs to come from the GM traits, where some of the lower ones can be specialized, but other fit into a general context of what the trait line is supposed to be about.

I think maybe what I am digging for is the ability to build, trait, and gear towards whatever I choose from options that Anet has provided for me. More personal touch to my playstyle then having to just accept unchangeable minor traits and what’s available to me. I could just be playing the wrong game lol

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Would it be less synergetic or even too linear or boring to condense traits, utilities, and weapons in to certain trait lines? i.e. Symbol traits go in to Honor and no where else. 1h traits in radiance. 2h traits in zeal. boons/virtues in Virtues. Defensive traits in Valor. Healing/Support traits in honor.

To go with this, to allow more uniqueness, allow us to change the minor traits as well?

Would it be less synergetic or even too linear or boring to condense traits, utilities, and weapons in to certain trait lines? i.e. Symbol traits go in to Honor and no where else. 1h traits in radiance. 2h traits in zeal. boons/virtues in Virtues. Defensive traits in Valor. Healing/Support traits in honor.

Exedore.6320:

...

Vulnerability on symbols in Zeal is a perfectly fine mechanic, but the vulnerability applied needs to last considerably longer. I would say 3-4 seconds per application instead of the 1 second now.

Does the vulnerability stack per tick in the symbol?

If it was per tick and using your suggestion, we’d see around 4 stacks every 9-12 seconds and the hammer can consistently keep the vulnerability up. That’d be very helpful for hammer being a support oriented weapon but also being effective at damage.

EDIT: NVM I looked up the info on it. Very cool.

Grants 1 stack of vulnerability lasting 3 seconds and reapplies each pulse (but keep in mind you will have at least +15% condition duration if you have this trait).
Symbol of Protection will apply 2 stacks the first pulse and 1 stack the next 2 pulses (certainly bug because Symbol of Protection hits twice the first pulse : once with the hammer and once with the symbol itself).

Yaki.9563:

Marmag.5823:

I have a simple question: maybe i misunderstood something, but how does your build counter conditions (I see you don’t use Pure of Voice and/or soldier runes)?.
Honestly, I can’t think of any support build without a strong conditions removal, so Pure of voice is a must for me.

PoV is not a stong condition removal trait. It removes 5 conditions every 60 seconds unless you trait for shout cooldowns and you use 3 shouts. You also probably don’t want to use your stability shout just to remove a condition.

If you’re worried about conditions, use the healing signet and the condition removal every 10s trait. Personally I think it’s completely unrealistic to expect to have amazing condition removal in addition to strong healing. Just like you don’t expect someone to have amazing condition removal with their DPS optimized build.

My warrior has fairly solid condition removal with Cleansing Ire + Melandru + Lemongrass + Dogged March. I still get lit up by condimancers though.

For group fights, being the guy that wipes tons of conditions for your group/zerg is a good feeling though since conditions are meta in WvW.

Tanky?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAS5elUgqCnFSPEm4ERWhRi9AjasjXPSoDZIA-jUyAoLBZiBA1AicAnzLiGbltIasKdioa9CmHvIa1SBQxYA-w

There is no greater guardian bunker then this build. If you go after the guard killer in your world exp bar to get the Fortitude, your HP will sit at 29k to 31k depending on the bolster from WvW. Popping Tome of Courage will send your HP to 37k to 38k and your toughness to 2.7k making you almost impossible to take down. The 1 spam on tome of courage will also allow you to spam heal 5 people for 1.3k per spam. using this with the dodge heal while pushing into the enemy is the perfect way to keep the group alive.

Adjust to your liking.

Tooltip bug you mean?

Place the icon at our feet. Maybe slightly bigger but at our feet give us the shield particle effect. And I mean at our feet, below them.

Better idea would be similar to how WoW did their aura activations on Paladin class. What I wish also that would happen is that Aegis wouldn’t be applied until the player enters combat then it proc’s and the internal cd starts. This would allow some of our aegis traits to be more effective. Aegis would then fall off when guardian leaves combat after the duration of the buff has been spent.

Crapgame.6519:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

This is what I run in WvW for group support in a zerg (minus ascended items). When the bodies start dropping, that endurance bar barely ever drains.

2477 attack, 21% crit, 2914 armor (SiN), 17.6k health, 2210 healing power while using mace, and 60% boon duration.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNApeWlcgyCXFyJEm4ESmiVCBxeoRfUHdpIheIA-jkCB4NCiEDQUDg0HApRFRjtsNsVXRr8KIqZER1KbYCB8dMA-w

Interesting build and I note you said when you are with a group. Solo roamer and I doubt you could kill a bunny rabbit (although that would probably make PETA very happy

Indeed. More or less there for everything staff has to offer and dropping heals for the group around me.

This is what I run in WvW for group support in a zerg (minus ascended items). When the bodies start dropping, that endurance bar barely ever drains.

2477 attack, 21% crit, 2914 armor (SiN), 17.6k health, 2210 healing power while using mace, and 60% boon duration.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNApeWlcgyCXFyJEm4ESmiVCBxeoRfUHdpIheIA-jkCB4NCiEDQUDg0HApRFRjtsNsVXRr8KIqZER1KbYCB8dMA-w

Brutaly.6257:

...

Symbols:
To many traits for one skill in one weapon, max two symbols per setup.. This would be alright if we had the necro setup with 4 marks (symbols) on the staff and we could specialize in them but as of now there are only two weapons (Mace and hammer) that actually have the uptime for it to ever consider it and than boon duration, healing power and toughness is much more important (better synergies) due to the nature of the weapon.

Some might argue that the symbol stuff in zeal is offensive and in honor you find defense/support but frankly with mace and hammer that is just wrong. The fact is the best dps enhancers for those two weapons are infact longer lasting symbols in pve versus static opponents and larger symbols in pvp and versus mobile pve opponent.

So either move the minor symbol traits to honor or just move all symbols from hammer, mace and gs to staff and keep the traits as they are.

If theu move all symbols to the staff we would also have a very decent ranged alternative with staff and scepter which would allow us to play guardian at range with serious impact.

And symbol bombing with 4 symbols would be hysterical tbh.

That would be great. If guardians could drop Water, Fire, and Light symbols on the staff which could cause damage per tick + a boon. Water could cause damage + 1 second of chill and grant regen, Fire could do 1 second of burning + Fury or Might, and Light would be just higher direct damage + swiftness. Move Empower to the GS and reduce the healing on it. It seems GS is a very Might oriented weapon.

Bash.7291:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Amins.3710:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Bottom line: Sustain is worth nothing without mitigation.

And because a Bunker Guardian can really kill so much more effectively than a Bunker Warrior.

Solid Argument right there.

It’s called “Bunker” for a reason. Every class can trait one way and gear another.

Now you’re just spit’n out some ridiculous stuff.

Maybe the issue is you’re part of the 90%.

So you’re telling me that Chris’s healway build is not a bunker build and that’s why he can kill 1vX. Never have I seen a warrior video of yours. Walk on the other side of the line first and tell me how warriors are.

Guardians also have access to burning damage which procs every 5 attacks. Traits that procs burning and heavy mitigation of damage which helps their EHP go up dramatically. Blinds, Aegis, Blocks, Virtues, protection, access to nearly perma vigor, heal on dodge, the list goes on. You tell me who can bunker better.

I’m the 90% of the warriors that know that bunkering won’t do anything but delay the inevitable. I’m not some buffbot that has to carry banners around and provide little to no damage for the team and lie to myself that I’m making a great contribution. No burst healing, no crazy boon uptime on protection, might, swiftness, stability, or retaliation. Sure, warriors have some more sustain now but it doesn’t mean jack if you can’t reduce damage taken. Warriors are kill or be killed. That doesn’t mean they are 100derp builds.

My opinion is you have no clue what you’re talking about unless you’ve played a warrior. Bunker wise, guardian wins hands down vs a bunker warrior. I’ve spent quite a bit of time and money on this game trying different builds, gear layouts, read a lot of forum posts on Bash, Brutaly, Chris, Obtena, TehSanny, Matale and many more which I always look closely at and bounce ideas off of.

I like to think I have a little idea of what I am talking about but I respect it’s your opinion.

To be fair, Chris’s build relies almost exclusively on retaliation. all you have to do is choose not to fight him and its an auto draw. Condition warriors can have decent sustain, which honestly ends up about the same as bunker guards, the issue is that while the meta is conditions and everyone is running over the top condition removal to counter it, retaliation has no true counter, other then not hitting people.

That’s true and I failed to mention that. Warriors do lack retaliation. We have a trait that we get at 30 Defense called Spiked Armor but it’s 5 seconds on a 15 cd. Without Quick Breathing + Warhorn we don’t have much else to go for. I agree after watching Oozo’s video and it’s something I am taking great interest in researching to see how I can effectively create a condition bunker warrior. I just wish S+S/LB had more access to different conditions besides burning, bleeding, and torment or rather quick sources to keep the pressure to heavy condition cleansing classes.

How do you even attempt to kill a Healway guardian? They cleanse conditions, they carry protection, retal, and regen for direct damage dealers. You’d have to go GC and hope to hit him when his boons are down or kite him but he has such high uptime on boons which makes it extremely difficult. This is from a warrior’s perspective of course. I am sure it’s a different story with a necro or mesmer.

Bash,

Do you feel the stats per tree are in the correct locations?

Zeal - Power/Cond dur
Radiance - Prec / Cond dmg
Valor - Toughness/C dmg
Honor - Vit / Healing Power
Virtue - Class oriented / Boon duration
--------------------------------------------------------

If any of those could be moved around to make more sense, where would you think they would make the most logical move?

My list was:

Zeal - Power/Cond dur
Radiance - Crit/Crit dmg
Valor - Tough/Healing Power
Honor - Vit / Boon duration
Virtue - Class / Cond dmg

With this, there would be some traits (minor and major) that would need to be shifted around to make much more sense of the change but with some current traits I felt this just made more sense.

EDIT: Took a double take of what I wrote and noticed it mirrored Thieves.

Amins.3710:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Bottom line: Sustain is worth nothing without mitigation.

And because a Bunker Guardian can really kill so much more effectively than a Bunker Warrior.

Solid Argument right there.

It’s called “Bunker” for a reason. Every class can trait one way and gear another.

Now you’re just spit’n out some ridiculous stuff.

Maybe the issue is you’re part of the 90%.

So you’re telling me that Chris’s healway build is not a bunker build and that’s why he can kill 1vX. Never have I seen a warrior video of yours. Walk on the other side of the line first and tell me how warriors are.

Guardians also have access to burning damage which procs every 5 attacks. Traits that procs burning and heavy mitigation of damage which helps their EHP go up dramatically. Blinds, Aegis, Blocks, Virtues, protection, access to nearly perma vigor, heal on dodge, the list goes on. You tell me who can bunker better.

I’m the 90% of the warriors that know that bunkering won’t do anything but delay the inevitable. I’m not some buffbot that has to carry banners around and provide little to no damage for the team and lie to myself that I’m making a great contribution. No burst healing, no crazy boon uptime on protection, might, swiftness, stability, or retaliation. Sure, warriors have some more sustain now but it doesn’t mean jack if you can’t reduce damage taken. Warriors are kill or be killed. That doesn’t mean they are 100derp builds.

My opinion is you have no clue what you’re talking about unless you’ve played a warrior. Bunker wise, guardian wins hands down vs a bunker warrior. I’ve spent quite a bit of time and money on this game trying different builds, gear layouts, read a lot of forum posts on Bash, Brutaly, Chris, Obtena, TehSanny, Matale and many more which I always look closely at and bounce ideas off of.

I like to think I have a little idea of what I am talking about but I respect it’s your opinion.

Amins.3710:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

madgod.7421:

I would love to see an ’easier’ form of mobility for guardians (maybe a signet w/25% inc. speed like other classes get).

That said, Im fine not having it simply because of what we get in exchange -- speed plus great gap closers. I run Retreat/SYG/SY with soldier runes. 2 out of those 3 give me swiftness, and every time I use them I cleanse conditions. If I need to bail - pop retreat, instant swiftness, plus aegis to cover my skritten on the way out the door.

Need to catch a mesmer on the run? Pop retreat/SY then blink/leap to him -- whats more, with the right setup that blink/leap will not only stack burning, but also blind and vulnerability on him, not mention giving me a few stacks of might while instantly increasing my damage against him by a good 30%

We were design to stand, fight and if necessary, hunt down and finish what they start. We are strong, we are fast, we are Guardians!

... what you are saying you want to play is a warrior. To give you an idea of the class they have better sustain than guardians... but they don’t really bring as many group buffs as a guardian if they are speced that way.

Not completely true.

Warriors have worse sustain than guardians. They do have better CC and slightly better escapes due to being less tanky than guardians and they only bring most offensive boons which a guardian lacks. FGJ + banners is pretty solid on the offense side.

My only suggestion to the OP is to understand the limitations to the class and realize guardians are in a great place right now outside of bugs and useless traits that every class has. Mobility is your weakness and you have some area denial and light CC but you make up for it with being able to survive quite a bit of everything.

Warrior sustain is fine now. The problem w/ 90% of the people who play the class think that +healing is the worst stat ever... the other 10%, IE the KNOWLEDABLE ONES, have 550-750 healing built in somewhere and run Signet + 4 Dwayna runes.

They get a regen proc and they’re sitting at over 650+ healing per second. Add in a shout and some Omnom + Sigil of Blood and they’re doing JUST fine.

But again, that’s only 10% of the playerbase who understands sustain.

So let me confirm. You think that a 5% proc rate on dwayna is worth it? Even if we add that to healing signet + omnomberry pies + sigil of blood + Adrenal Health, is that good enough sustain at a cost to our dps output? Without protection or some form of active damage mitigation, a measly <1000 HP/s isn’t going to keep warriors alive. If warrior had protection + regen then we might see some differences. A build referring to the information you gave me would require a decent crit chance, investment in to cleric/magi gear and rest berserker to maintain a semi effective output of damage. Regardless, until warriors get some form of damage mitigation, sustain on a warrior is not as effective in comparison to a guardian. Now if you are referring to bunker warriors well then you probably got that right except they hit like wet noodles. A guardian can gear offensively but trait defensively and see some pretty good results.

Bottom line, even if we had 1000 HP/s + 2k shout heals, we would still need to rely on another class to kill for us since we have moved away from dps to a poor tank/bunker support class which is bad at support anyway. Warriors complain they need protection to reach the same potential of guardians and I believe they shouldn’t homogenize the class by adding this boon so the playstyles can still be different. Active CC in the form of dazes or more smaller blocks is the key for warrior’s mitigation.

Bottom line: Sustain is worth nothing without mitigation.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

madgod.7421:

I would love to see an ’easier’ form of mobility for guardians (maybe a signet w/25% inc. speed like other classes get).

That said, Im fine not having it simply because of what we get in exchange -- speed plus great gap closers. I run Retreat/SYG/SY with soldier runes. 2 out of those 3 give me swiftness, and every time I use them I cleanse conditions. If I need to bail - pop retreat, instant swiftness, plus aegis to cover my skritten on the way out the door.

Need to catch a mesmer on the run? Pop retreat/SY then blink/leap to him -- whats more, with the right setup that blink/leap will not only stack burning, but also blind and vulnerability on him, not mention giving me a few stacks of might while instantly increasing my damage against him by a good 30%

We were design to stand, fight and if necessary, hunt down and finish what they start. We are strong, we are fast, we are Guardians!

... what you are saying you want to play is a warrior. To give you an idea of the class they have better sustain than guardians... but they don’t really bring as many group buffs as a guardian if they are speced that way.

Not completely true.

Warriors have worse sustain than guardians. They do have better CC and slightly better escapes due to being less tanky than guardians and they only bring most offensive boons which a guardian lacks. FGJ + banners is pretty solid on the offense side.

My only suggestion to the OP is to understand the limitations to the class and realize guardians are in a great place right now outside of bugs and useless traits that every class has. Mobility is your weakness and you have some area denial and light CC but you make up for it with being able to survive quite a bit of everything.

For larger groups/zergs I would run stamina sigil on staff. When people start dying you can almost endlessly dodge roll.

Good video. Thanks for the info.

Amins.3710:

Full...............

Mother of god....

Why doesn’t every guardian have this sigil on their staff then? I had no idea... Thanks Bala for the heads up. I will keep my energy sigils on my weapons but the staff definitely needs the stamina sigil.

Amins.3710:

I use Sigil of Stamina soley for zerg vs zerg.

I am yoda once we start killing stuff.

Claiming it hard to tag stuff w/ a staff is ridiculous.

How much endurance does it refill?

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

If they did anything to radiance X it would have to be something other than damage. At 5% it’s really strong right now in pvp. If they upped that to 10% they would have to either A) change the way damage is calculated ornerf us in another way.

Radiance X could get something like a "increases chance to proc crit effects by 10%" or something, but any damage increase would be too much.

Meh combine Powerful Blades and Zealous Blade in to one. Attacks with your Greatswords and Swords deals 5% more damage and heals you. Change Radiance X to: 33% chance to cause 1 stack of torment for 5 seconds when you apply burning to your target.

Aza.2105:

If searing flames removed three boons with a 20 sec cd, then it would be perfectly fine.

Shattered Aegis could use a buff, maybe after applying burning at 25% hp, it can make you become immune to conditions for 10 seconds.

The guardian class doesn’t have issues with cleansing conditions. You have to really try hard not to get any cleansing abilities.

If they gave us better healing options in Honor tree besides selfless daring we might be able to avoid Valor tree more. The stats available are just really needed for the way guardians were designed.

I would rather see:

Power/Cond dmg
Prec/Crit dmg
Tough/Healing power
Vit/Boon duration
Virtue/Cond duration

Also, instead of making these random options to "synergize" with other trees, make it linear. Crit based traits and abilities come from Radiance. Boon related traits and skills from Honor. Defensive traits and healing down the Valor tree. Allow these trees to be more oriented towards their underlining purpose will let us pick. Example being AH or MF. Keep them in Valor but when it comes to shorter durations place both Superior Aria and Meditation Mastery in the Honor tree since both these traits relate to a healing trait.

My logic is a little confusing if I had time to really build a spreadsheet and narrow down what I thought would make sense. I kinda see Anet’s issue now. lol

Yaki.9563:

If only dodge rolls had a range of more than 100. It’s also funny how you make it out like a 1500 heal every 10s is a lot.

He might be able to pull off a dodge heal every 5 seconds if Vigor can stay up but he’ll need outside help with that. More if he threw Sigils of Energy on the weapons.

But like what Yaki said. Your low crit will proc vigor for 5 seconds giving you 50% endurance regen but the consistency this will happen is low with your crit chance. Your damage has no burst. Your AH heals will come from your activation of Virtues, symbols, and stand your ground. I understand the direction you’re going but you might be more effective going more offensive with gear and defensive with traits. It’s just my recommendation but if this is how you want to play, by all means, go for it.

Dodge rolls are closer to 1.5k, VoR is about 2700 on a long cd, you will not produce crazy might with staff alone and use them effectively unless you empower then weapon swap to hammer right away every time. even with empowering might your crit is too low to proc efficiently. The same will happen to your vigor proc. You bring very little condition cleanses and rely on 60% condition duration reduction to help your <14k health last. Nothing about your build even brings group support. This is a solo build. A 1v1 build and I wouldn’t use shouts if I was 1v1. You will have nice protection/retaliation uptime with your light field and blast finisher as long as you can stay within your symbol for the 2 seconds it’s up. It’s iffy.

Check this one out.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUMQNApeWlYgyCXFyJEm4ESmiVKBxeoRfUHdpwheIA-jkCBoNCiUDg0HBKLqIasltRr6KslXBRNjIqW1AzlATEAzYA-w

Pretty high uptime on boons and healing power. A drawback is 14k health and I have been melted before. What can you do when 60 SoR come pouring over you and FPS/Input lag doesn’t allow you to react? Die...

Your dodge rolls (w/ 25 stacks of life) heal for over 2k easily. You can adjust anything you see fit. In small groups you’re still hard to kill as long as you are being proactive with boon uptime, dodge rolls, etc. One thing you can swap out for the lack of crit is to pick up maintenance oil and swap purity for ret armor. It will get you close to 20% crit for vigor procs or you can pick up the food that gives you 40% endurance refill rate which is almost to your cap of 50% that vigor gives (these do not stack with each other). Selfless Daring is money in high healing power builds.

Strategy is simple:
1. Use your dodges wisely to avoid damage as well as heal yourself and your team.
2. Use shouts appropriately to convert conditions to boons.
3. Keep swinging the mace and connect the third chain for an aoe 900 heal. Drop the healing symbol when your team stops or in the middle of all that mess. Heals and the combo finishers clear conditions because we know the WvW meta is DoTs, DoTs, and more DoTs(50 dkp minus!!). Use #3 mace prior to engagement to give out 4 secs of protection to your nearby allies. Shield #4 for more protection when you crash in to your enemies’ forces.
4. Keep weapon swapping on cooldown. Each time you weapon swap dodge roll just before to get the most out of energy sigil.
5. Empower does 3k+ heal, orb of light is almost a 2k aoe heal, and use symbol of swiftness for healing, swiftness, and damage/combo field. Line of warding for directing the zerg. I usually wait to use this later in the fight since everyone pops stability at the beginning.

Your title is a little misleading. This isn’t much of a healing build or what I would expect from a wvw healing build. This is more of a support build that has been posted and talked about since....release by Brutaly and I forget the other guardian player that had videos that showed this build off.

This is a half-kitten support build with greater support for the guardian only.

I’d be ok if they added Aegis to caster + 4 others on activation of skill #5.

And here is the rough draft of Spirit Weapon side: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUMQNAR8flYgSBHHyMEf4ESWBWy6BA1P+T1j4Zf8QA-jEyA4MBZqSgoCw5wioxWNLiGrmBTjSEV7RKiWtQATWDA-w

Grants 1 second of burning damage per hit and the sword attacks quicker than the hammer if I remember correctly. It also uses the player’s condition damage modifier.

Hey guys,

Been getting bored with all the metas out there for guardian so I’ve been kicking around ideas for ways to play my guardian. I have the whole healing build down and I have an AH build that uses 0/15/30/20/5 which packs on heavy PVT + VPT and a little bit of crit and crit dmg (http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUMQJARSlYg67mFyKEfIFRuA7DAETBGz41DHSRGC-jkxAYrAl9KiGbltIasKdioa9CmHvIa1CBMaLA-w).

I have two versions I am working on. A full offensive condition guardian and a mix of both offense and heals from Monk’s Focus.

1. Offensive: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUMQRAsd7flUgiDXGSJEg4Ei1DBCh8nqHxT94hXFUIA-jUyA4sBRTLApKBiKAnDLiGb1sIasaGMNKRUtHpIa1CB8YNA-w
2403 condition damage w/ 25 stacks = 929 burning per second.
I thought maybe to pick up Spirit weapon + burning but decided against it until I can test better.

2. Healing from Meditations
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUMQRAsd7flUgiDnGyOEf4Eh1DBiQ/VVIeXPgoCbIA-jUyA4sBRTLApKBiKAnDLiGb1sIasaGMNKRUtHpIa1CBMZNA-w
2059 condition damage w/ 25 stack = 843 burning per second.

Hit me with your thoughts. I am looking for ways to maintain burning on a target regardless of heavy cleanses so that burning in constant w/ +20% damage from Radiant Power and Fiery Wrath. The bleeds I get from sword/scepter are more or less just for cleanses as well as condition damage and they proc Radiant Power for the +10% dmg.

Thanks

So then the next strategy would be to get Condition Damage as high as possible, not focus on condition duration, and look at increasing my survivability so that I can outlast my target and let my burning damage do its work.

So either we go 30 in to Valor for more toughness and monk’s focus or I focus on 30 Virtues for AoE burns.

Lord Trejgon.2809:

@Artemis actually for some moment there is better to pack condi (but that is much lower thatn 2k condi dmg) and after that packing into duration MIGHT be better (to have next tick from VoJ Passive You need to have 100% condi (burning) duration)

This is what I thought. That I would need burning to last twice as long to be effective. Thanks.

Is there a way to increase damage on burning to tick for over 1k? I have a build I am working on to get over 2k condition damage after 25 stacks but to achieve 1k tick you’ll need 2700 condition damage. So my question is, is it more effective to get condition damage to x amount then work on condition duration so that an additional tick would be more effective?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUMQNAR8flUgSDHHSFEg4Eh1DBiQ/VVIeXPUIFbIA-jUyA4MBZaBMVBi8AkCLiGb1sIasaGMVKRUtHpIa1SBAxaA-w

I had an idea to go down the Virtue to pick up aoe burn and 4 attacks instead of 5 but I really kill my survivability without monk’s focus.

Some of my ideas/changes for warrior weapons to allow them to take less damage so that they will not need protection/aegis for damage mitigation. Weapon changes to allow more mitigation and better synergy. Left range weapons out because I feel they are balanced or require less adjustment. Please just understand where I come from and know that the semantics will likely change for balancing reasons.

Greatsword: A weaker 2h option compared to hammer but has mobility and boons to help balance.
Burst: 100B – Channel for 2 seconds moving at a reduced rate striking up to 5 other foes in front of you.
1. Keep same
2. Arcing Slice – 4 seconds of fury on 8 cd
3. Whirlwind – range 500 and attacks cause 6 seconds of cripple. Remove .75 evade.
4. Parry: Block incoming attacks for 2 seconds. Gain 2 strikes of adrenaline when cancelled.
5. Keep same but add a 1 second daze when attack connects. Reduce range to 900 but make animation faster giving 2 second evade.
Hammer: A stronger 2h weapon focusing on movement impairing affects and CC
Burst: Same
1. Same
2. Same. Reduce cd to 8 seconds.
3. Same
4. Staggering Blow – Channel a 2 second parry and at the end of the parry swing your hammer around dazing up to 5 targets for 2 seconds, doing minimal damage at a reduce movement speed. Cancelling block gains 3 strikes of adrenaline.
5. Same
Axe MH: Higher direct damage and vulnerability condition but lacking mobility.
Burst: Same 450 range.
1. Double Chop applies a 2 second cripple assisting with the Triple Chops ability to land OR spread out damage through the chain removing the channel required (adjusting attack speed may be required for balance).
2. Instead of vulnerability move in a 4 second cripple
3. Throw Axe now does 2 second daze.
Mace MH: Defensive weapon. Medium damage with high CC affects but lacking mobility and movement impairing.
Burst: Same
1. Same
2. Same but channel block for 2 seconds or gain adrenaline if cancelled.
3. Increase daze to 2 seconds.
Sword MH: Medium damage with consistent bleeds and mobility with minor movement impairing affects.
Burst: Same but remove root in place and immobilize condition. Ranks of adrenaline now grant additional condition effects. Rank 1: 8 stacks of bleed for 4 seconds. Rank 2: 8 stacks of bleeding for 4 seconds and 4 seconds of poison. Rank 3: 8 Stacks of bleeding for 4 seconds, 4 seconds of poison, and 2 seconds of burning.
1. Same but remove bleed on hamstring and apply torment for 2 seconds.
2. Renamed to Achilles ’ heel – Low cut attack doing cripple for 6 seconds and evade for .75 second. 8 sec cd
3. Renamed to Savage Thrust – Leap at your target doing bonus damage to targets with less than 30% health. 12 sec cd.
Axe OH:
4. Same
5. Whirling Axe now reflects projectiles
Mace OH:
4. Same but reduce cast time to .5
5. Same
Sword OH:
4. Impale – 3 stacks of torment for 12 seconds. Renamed Rip to Fester Wound – causes 5 seconds of poison.
5. Parry – Channel block for 2 seconds or cancel to gain adrenaline.
Shield:
4. Increase range to 450 and reduce cd to 20 seconds (16 w/ trait).
5. Shield Stance (categorized as a stance) – 4 second channel blocking attacks (5 sec traited with sure-foot). 25 second cd (20 w/ trait).
Warhorn:
4. Charge – Causes 1 second chill up to 5 targets around you.
5. Same

I still suggest adding ways to mitigate damage through our weapon choices. Blocks, dazes, stuns, and evade tweaks would be helpful with reduced cool downs.

Example:

Shield Stance
Block attacks while channeling.
Duration 3 seconds. Cool down 30 seconds (24 if traited).

Suggestion:

Shield Stance (classified as a stance)
Block attacks while channeling and move at a reduced speed.
Duration 4 seconds (5 seconds with sure-footed). Cool down 20 seconds (18 if traited).

Why a shorter cooldown and longer duration? Overpowered right? Well you’re not really doing damage, merely eliminating incoming damage and you are moving at a reduced rate which is the draw back. It doesn’t provide stability so you can still be feared and pulled from mesmers and if it helped I am sure they could negotiate either AoE knocked downs, knocked backs or even blowout abilities to bypass the shield that would normally require stability.

If you also look at the main hand mace I think it’s a great defensive weapon if the block was also a 2 second channel and didn’t retaliate when it took a hit but granted adrenaline like usual.

Options like this to allow a block, a 1-2 second daze/stun, a blind, or evades will stop incoming damage temporarily. This way we don’t have to get Aegis or Protection boons and homogenize with the guardian class.

Daecollo doesn’t understand balance or making choices on the warrior. He feels that whatever way he plays he should have access to everything and anything.

Harper is right. The devs have these options for us and allow us to make the choice on how we play rather than already having predetermined cookie cutter builds. The only thing that doesn’t make sense is Heightened Focus in the Burst tree when it’s obviously a sustained damage ability and would be much better suited in the Arms tree. Swap Last Chance and Heightened Focus is my personal opinion. Adrenal Health is fine as is and Cleansing Ire is fine as well, though, I do wish Cleansing Ire cleansed 1 condition per adrenaline bar and would only work if we gained that adrenaline through dealing or receiving direct damage. That would negate the abilities that give us insta full adrenaline or swapping weapons or inspiring shouts.

I like the direction they are going and a few more slight changes would be great and maybe some traits in the right trees making more sense but the devs have their own idea of what they want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMPWMUEDSTY - A good demonstration of rifle in WvW.

Keep cast time but allow us to move at a reduced rate.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNApeWlcgyCXFyJEm4ESmiVCBxeoRfUHdpIheIA-jkyAoNBRqBI9JQZxioxW3Cb1NIl3opmJiqVRYuEMhA+OGA-w

This is my alternate version of healway focusing more on healing than dps.

With the recent changes to symbol’s radius it means I can take advantage of Symbol of Faith and Swiftness and keep healing up in areas as well as my shouts.

My only rebuttal is gaining the protection boon will not be a solution. Something better than protection is dodge and block mechanics. Give us more access to those on shorter cooldowns and it will solve the sustain issue.

Burst isn’t so much of an issue to survive as a guardian in WvW. It’s the AoE clusterkitten that occurs and as long as you are avoiding those, dodge rolling attacks, swapping between weapons with energy sigil and keeping your boons/shouts up, you should be fine. I am going to try this tonight to see how it performs in comparison to the Healway build in a zerg.

Was just dabbling with some Healing Power theories as well as skill affects it would produce. Came up with this build below. I used Exotics/Rare but the best food to predict an average player’s potential. I personally find no use in ascended items for a minimal increase in performance which I may later down the road invest.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNApeWlcgyCXFyJEf4ESmiVCBxeoRfUHdpIheIA-jkyAoNBRqBI9JQZxioxW3iW1Nsl3goiwUqER1ukioVLEw3xA-w

So with Max Healing power (Life Stacks + Strength in Numbers proc’d for food) we are looking at approximately 2283 healing power. You can choose to go 2 monk, 2 water, 2 dwayna for longer and stronger regen but I wanted more healing out of other abilities.

Just some healing output I have jotted down. Please add if I miss any by using the formulas on wiki (note: note all formulas are not accurate which could lead to false data. I am only going by what’s available on wiki).

Selfless Daring – 2412 Health on dodge roll
Writ of the Merciful – 278 health per second while in a symbol
Regeneration – 415 health per second
Shield of Absorption Sequence – 1757 health
Mace AA chain #3 – 874 health per hit
Healing Breeze – 4008 health over 3 second channel to allies
Virtue of Resolve Passive – 389 health every 3 seconds. (486 with Absolute Resolution)
VoR Activate – 3337 health

There are plenty of more out there. If you move to abilities without the mace equipped please subtract 250 healing power and approximate with the slight increase/drop of toughness.

Pretty crazy healing available with 14k health.

My suggestion? Scrap their idea of a warrior and rebuild the warrior from the ground up with a better perspective on what niche they should play in PvP, WvW, and PVE.

KarlusDavius.1024:

thats the point of this thread. We shouldn’t have to go *full* bunker and go rubbish damage to gain sustain. we should be able to do *good* pressure damage and *not* be full bunker.

I’m by no means saying we should be able to do sustain in zerker gear, however in Knights gear we shouldn’t still be dropped so easily in a dps orientated spec. Nobody really worries about a warrior like they do other classes. were too easily countered and don’t have the option like other classes.

Bas has an amazing Podcast up with stacks of amazing idea that would make our gameplay dynamic and interesting again. Should go have a watch/listen.

To clarify, we have good burst capabilities and we have decent bunker, granted it is still noticeably less effective than guardians but somehow we don’t have middle of the road? See when I read your statement it almost sounds like we don’t have good damage mixed with good survival. Are you asking for an almost GC build + good sustain? What type of stats are you asking for? Are you trying to say, for example, that you want warriors to have a similar option to guardians where they can spec in an AH build and 1v3 fairly well?

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a build posted by Matale which would prove that theory that it is possible.

mathras.2450:

peter.9024:

mathras.2450:

peter.9024:

I’d rather not play my warrior at all than play a burst build. I much, much prefer health regen to active heals and the like, and as I said before I don’t want to max dps. I really have no idea why they would NERF people trying to play more balanced builds, instead of the much-complained about full berserker builds. Especially since warriors have never been amazing in WvW.

Hmmm, I think there is a slight misunderstanding in the use of my terms. When I say burst, I mean our F1 skill, but not the overall gameplay style (I.e no bulls rush frenzy 100b). The new patch made our builds focus more on using our F1 skill, while they have still have very balanced stats and even decent sustain (a lot of people argue against that in this forum).

However reading from what you want to achieve, you are looking for passive regen etc. I think the closest to it might be a regen banner build – but most likely your damage is not going to be nearly as good as your balanced build before. In that area, you might be looking at rerolling to a guardian.

No, I understand what burst skills are, I just have no desire to use them.

Likewise with banners. Really, my build was fine before the patch. I had decent health regen and did good damage. Now it’s ruined, for no reason.

And no, I’m not going to play a guardian, I’ll probably find a better game. All three of my 80s have been nerfed badly, and I’m just about through with this.

Well best of luck in your other game. I hope you can adapt there.

Adapt? I play these games for fun. When it stops being fun because I’m being funnelled into doing something I don’t want to do, why should I continue to play? Adapting is something you HAVE to do in order to survive. MMOs are supposed to be an escape from reality, not an extension of it.

All players adapt to all situations where the game changes or classes are balanced for x reason decided. Sure you can quit and go to another game that doesn’t funnel you in one direction how to play but the warrior doesn’t have one direction to play. Anet simply wanted to make burst abilities a key part of the class. You can still play the way you want, though it may not be effective but no one will tell you that you can’t play the way you want. We’ve offered our advice on how to maintain your desired playstyle and gear. You can still make the choice to play and adapt your playstyle to the new and future changes or you can go play a different game.

Honestly, if you wanted to keep your berserker’s power and heightened focus, get them. That will leave you 10 trait points to do what you like. Everyone has a choice.

Amins.3710:

Let me put this into perspective for you in your quote.

The Warriors I run w/ Shout Heal me for 2k, consistantly... Meaning he has approximately 1k-1100 healing power. To do this you need weapon, armor, and trinkets to be clerics or something like that to get that healing output. Which means he hits like a wet noodle. We don’t have burning damage like guardians for more sustained dps and we are worse at bunkering. Currently, right now, the warrior’s niche is kill or be killed and pray they don’t dodge your key attacks.

They are more or less, Immune to Conditions We have Dogged March which is 33% less duration on cripple, immobilize, and chilled. Warhorn for movement conditions and Quick Breathing which turns a condition into a boon. Cleansing Ire has it’s uses but is less effective than the devs had hoped but can cleanses 3 conditions none the less. Our condition removal is very poor. Berserker’s Stance was recently buffed and is great for stopping the stacking of conditions but they do not remove them and a condition spamming class will just have to wait 8-10 seconds for it to fall off. This is the key time a warrior has to drop that class or else melt there after.

and will never be CC’d unless it is Chained on them. Anyone can be chained CC’d if they lack stability or Stun Breakers. It’s not uncommon to chain CC a warrior missing those tools.

They have some of the best Mobility in game So basically, a warrior with greatsword, Sword + warhorn is what you call the best mobility in the game? What about all the other weapons and playstyles? Thieves and mesmers I think take the top of the list when it comes to mobility. Ele is close behind but yes a GS + Sword/WH is very mobile.

and some of the best AoE Knockdowns in game... Stomp? Have you ever played a warrior before? OH Mace would be better if it moved faster. Even with AoE stuns, knockbacks (which are counter productive to a melee centric class) and our knockdowns, it’s still not enough because they are countered easily by stability or a player with half a brain since warrior’s attacks are so televised. If all the other classes lacked stability boons or ways to get out then I might say we have a niche. Alas, mace and hammer are easily dismantled if the target(s) have a good source of stability.

all on top of a decent passive regen via Signet. You’re right, it’s decent regen in comparison to other classes but the catch is that it’s our heal ability and not a utility like everyone else. We also don’t have a trait that allows the regen to continue after activation, thus making it a difficult selection and poor choice for on demand healing.

Couple that w/ 4 Dwayna Runes + 2 Water, they can have a decent Regen as well. First off, we have the worst way to gain the boon, regneration. Why would you want to put 65% boon duration for a 3 second boon? As you well know, everyone has access to runes and sigils so it’s hard to use these examples as key solutions to the warrior’s problem. The tools are there, sure, warriors should take advantage of them but they shouldn’t have to be a necessity to perform. Good example is Soldier Runes. They are basically a go to source for our poor options to cleanse conditions. A crutch.

Maybe it’s your build.... I just don’t think you have played the class very long to understand the small ups and plentiful downs the class is facing.

Responses in quote are bolded. Thanks.

First off, welcome to the dark side....

Ranger’s dps needs to be looked at from the ranger and the pet’s perspective. Together you are one. For thieves and warriors to drop heavy damage, they need to be spec’d for specific burst abilities and geared towards a glass cannon, as they call it, to compliment those attacks.

Rangers have a lot of tools at their disposal, as well as abilities their pet has access to. I would say you have the capability to do some very impressive things. I might even suggest checking out the ranger forums and pick at the brains of some very talented rangers to figure out a good fit for your playstyle and gear choices.

I like it. All of these would need to be master traits.

Has this data been tested on gw2guru.com? Where have these tests been notated?

Morning Warriors,

Haven’t had a chance to do much research on the wiki since I’m at work and wanted to throw down a quick idea which I am sure has been touched on.

Lifesteal.

What options do we have combined with Dogged March + Adrenal Health can we stack to gain more health in return?

Off the top of my head I thought about:

1. Sigil of Blood - 453 HP w 2 sec icd.
2. Omnomberry Ghost - 341 HP w/ 1 sec icd.
3. Sigil of Leeching - 847 HP on weapon swap + attack (probably a 9 - 10 sec icd)
4. Runes of Vampirism - See below..

A. At level 80 the amount of life stolen from attacking after being hit from the 2 piece bonus is 975.
B. At level 80 the amount of life stolen after using your heal skill from the 4 piece bonus is 975.
C. The 4 piece bonus has a 15 second cooldown.)

Anything I’m missing? Also, do any of these share the same internal cooldown?

Cheers