Guild Wars 2

Teamkiller.4315:

Bakitten291:

However, i have to say that the 0/x/30/30/x builds are not suited for 1v1, They have great survivabilty, but lack in killing power. Also AH is pretty much useless in 1v1, as it is meant to be used around other people, and has dismal healing when solo. They are really meant to be kept in groups, not out roaming or dueling.

That will depend on your gear. You have to remember that the 30 in any trait line will only affect a stat by a maximum of 300 points. Compared to being able to stack well over 1000 of another stat (and around 2/3 of that on two other stats) through equipment and accessories alone (for example, my ranger has >1400 condition damage) it won’t make a huge difference.

As in, I could go Full Berserker Equips and x/x/30/30/x And hit harder with full on whirling wrath than a full GC thief could hit with backstab. No, that build is not practical because you would die to a feather falling on you but to illustrate my point, my guardian runs a x/x/30/30/x support build with half my gear being Valkyrie’s and the other half being knight’s, and I can still consistently hit 4-5k whirling wraths.

True, but at the same time there are many traits picked up which further increase damage compared to the x/x/30/30/x builds. You pick up 10% increased damage from burning on a target, (from 10 in zeal, ontop of the 100 power) 10% increase from having a condition on a target, 5% increase on one hand sword damage, 15% increase on 1h crit (which is huge in itself) ontop of the amount of crit you gain from putting into that tree in the first place. Where as with honor you at most get 10% from dodging (which can be detrimental as its always better to have full endurance than to HAVE to dodge to increase your damage) 20% cd reduction on 2h, which is a good talent, Empowering might, which can net you 5 stacks of might, assuming you are critting enough every second to proc it. Which in a 1v1 fight, is alot less then people think.

10/30/30/0/0 Hands down.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|c.1g.h2.d.1c.h19|1.1p.h19|1n.7c.1c.7c.1n.7c.1c.7c.1n.7c.1c.7c|1p.61.1n.67.1n.67.1i.67.1g.67.1c.61|a2.u6ab.u56c.0.0|54.1|w.1b.15.13.1i|e

Some of the highest single target damage you are going to be able to get without going full glass cannon. If you run against alot of conditions, just switch signet with contemplation of purity.

As teamkiller said, healway is honestly the best 1v1, but I consider that honestly the cheapest build as well, as it literally relies on retaliation to do all of your damage, which is honestly a broken mechanic.

However, i have to say that the 0/x/30/30/x builds are not suited for 1v1, They have great survivabilty, but lack in killing power. Also AH is pretty much useless in 1v1, as it is meant to be used around other people, and has dismal healing when solo. They are really meant to be kept in groups, not out roaming or dueling.

It is because of the way the coding works, WoR literally makes the attack yours, so things that spawn from the attack (such as mesmer illusions) actually become yours. It is rather stupid in a sense, since you cant control someone blowing you up with their own attacks reflected.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|c.1g.h1.e.1n.h1l|9.1g.h1.d.1c.h1l|1n.7r.1p.7r.1n.7r.1p.7r.1n.7r.1p.7r|1p.61.1n.67.1n.67.1i.67.1g.67.1c.61|0.u6ab.u69c.a6.0|15.1|w.1a.15.13.1i|e

This is my personal build I am working with atm and testing out. you lose about 300 effective power compared to yours, but gain a huge amount of armor and effective health. The nice thing about having more armor is that is makes your heals more effective, as you essentially heal back more hits because you are taking less damage from each hit. Also, conditions are almost a complete non issue as the food + melandru runes remove them quickly, and you also have smite condition if you get something like a nasty confusion stack on you. As blood said, I use mace defensively and sword Offensively, despite actually having more armor with my sword/shield combo. (You can always switch the offhands, but i prefer having the shield with the sword to combat thieves with shadow refuge.

If your build works for you, then use it. Personally, I just couldn’t move to a build like that, as I think the valor tree just offers too much in terms of DPS and survivability, (30% crit damage which is great for high crit builds, meditation healing, 300 extra toughness, extra crit from tougness, things like this) One thing though is that you should switch your sigil out of your offhand for something else, on crit sigils all share a CD, and always activate based on the main hand first, offhand second. AKA, your offhand sigil is never going to activate because of your mainhand. switch to either a straight boost like accuracy, or an on kill effect like bloodlust.

Also, as a personal preference, I would say drop the scholar runes and go for pack runes. Unless you can stay at 90%+ health consistantly, (which in PvE is totally possible, in WvW not so much) the pack runes offer more damage, and also give you the chance for swiftness, fury, and might when hit (which only being 5% it actually procs fairly decently. And this also gives the buffs to allies too.)

Kadin.2356:

Has anyone run the numbers on these two? I was immediately attracted to the sigil of strength as it is one of the few sigils that has no hidden internal cooldown. In larger fights I’ve seen a +5 stack of might pop up from a single mighty blow, that combined with AH for heals makes it hard to beat. That being said, it’s really hard to get a guardian’s base crit rate up and the +5% is really tempting.

The sigil does have an internal cooldown, if you run things like virtue’s 5 point talent, Empowering might, or valor’s might on block it is very easy to get might stacks up, which may have made it seem like it was the sigil alone. Running a 70% crit 1h build I couldn’t get past 5 stacks with just the sigil alone, and this included massive aoe crit amounts from WW on groups.

vesta.3170:

Bad Link.

lkajshd;kajlhsdg;has;gjksd;lfkhj

One of these days someone is going to finally realize you have to copy paste those types of links due to the forum being stupid.

Also @OP Try using: http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian if you want to do a PVE/WvW spec as it lets you actually lay out every piece of gear.

Nuked.2360:

Vodka.3958:

Pvp.2758:

Waage.2047:

Pvp.2758:

Culling is removed and SoR takes 2nd. Nice!

Well DUH. You always had the numbers and the removing of culling made your zerg’s finally realize that they where getting hit by smaller forces at all times. BG dose not have the numbers to fight SoR or JQ’s numbers.

We tend to be better in movement and stronger pound for pound, but we do not have the pure mass that you guys have.

Oh I forgot SoR has a higher map pop. thanks to anet’s love for SoR

Everyone knows that SoR’s strategy has always been to get everyone in their map into 1 huge zerg; while Blackgate on the other hand has a lot more smaller, organized strike team guilds hitting different locations simultaneously.

Especially SoR’s largest guild, for example, would insta queue the map with their 1500 members and stay together in 1 huge zerg.

ICoa doesn’t split groups up lol don’t kid yourself. The last time we ran into Icoa they had the whole map following them.

To be honest, EVERY GROUP in EVERY BL is a giant zerg ball now. I have yet to see any groups smaller than 40 running around in maps unless the server was outmanned.

Pvp.2758:

Blackgate’s Coordinated Strike Team

1) Before
2) After
3) Bag

Yeah….. because the 10 different guild tags i could pick out just from looking at it is totally a coordinated strike team…. grats for arrow carting pugs coming through a choke point?

Miiaah.5416:

Bakitten291:

Nuked.2360:

Heavens Brethren.6471:

Congrats JQ for maintaining first place by being the lead server in a two server team. I solute you for your individual servers skill in Wv3. Good job manning up to your loss last week by showing such excellent strategy! =) Go “Jade Rall.” Cheer

You seem a little mad you do realize that SoR hit us just as much as you guys. Thing is our stuff wasn’t paper when they hit it. We capitalized on your guys dead periods and you guys struggled to do so this is the result.

So Sor is in the water only attacking our people… JQ is on the hill, only attacking our people… yep sure your point is totally proven. Btw, this is directly outside our spawn.

The way to think about this is complimentary to BG, it takes both just like BGs last stint in T1 before the JQ transfers, JQ avoided SoS like the plague, SoR is a carbon copy of that time, all to happy to come in a distant second. Sure they skirmish here and there but the reality is obvious and it only amplifies when BG takes the week off up to the patch. It gives the “attack the weak link” talk some merit even if it keeps a server that plays only for the fights in a distant second it shows who they consider " the good fight"

What I have noticed this week on BG is the lack of Smokee (other HB) which seems to effect map colors a lot more than double teams and servers losing their use of culling as their main strategy. I’m sure most will say one person doesn’t effect a server that much but I have to disagree, BG lost a huge amount of PPT with the departure of Smokee and his attitude of WvW, the most memorable no fear fights I was in were running in that small 20 man group which accomplished 10 times what the mega zerg ever did.

There are honestly alot of commanders that I used to recognize during morning hours that I just havent seen this week. Not sure if people are taking breaks but I do hope they come back

Nuked.2360:

Heavens Brethren.6471:

Congrats JQ for maintaining first place by being the lead server in a two server team. I solute you for your individual servers skill in Wv3. Good job manning up to your loss last week by showing such excellent strategy! =) Go “Jade Rall.” Cheer

You seem a little mad you do realize that SoR hit us just as much as you guys. Thing is our stuff wasn’t paper when they hit it. We capitalized on your guys dead periods and you guys struggled to do so this is the result.

So Sor is in the water only attacking our people… JQ is on the hill, only attacking our people… yep sure your point is totally proven. Btw, this is directly outside our spawn.

Brutaly.6257:

Samis.1750:

As Lala. said, mace has a few flaws. Reach is only 130 as opposed to 150 on sword.

I believe its only the last hit of the sword that has 150 in range and when using it at 150 not all three projectiles will hit the opposing player. Most of the times its just one hit out of three. For it to be effecive you need to be closer than 130 to guarantee to hit with all three projectiles.

The first two steps of the mace/sword chain has the same reach.

Mace second step also do considerably more damage then the second step of the sword.

Not saying its a great weapon but its definitely usable in wvw to kill people. Just pair it with a offensive alternative.

The first two AAs are 150, the third attack is 300 range.

0/25/30/0/15

stats:
3k attack
3k armor
42% crit
68% crit damage
0 healing.

Build focuses around decent AoE damage, massive AoE retaliation uptime, and using AH in a group setting to keep constant heals. (2 symbols, 10 boons applied per virtue use, constant blast finishers in light fields) Big key is using Lemongrass soup for 40% condition duration reduction, and either using 6x Meldandru runes for more toughness/condition duration reduction, or using pack runes for more offense. (those stats are for pack runes)

Teamkiller.4315:

Hello there Amin, I was wondering if you could share how you got your stats? Mine are nearly identical and I have the exact same 0/0/30/30/10 build as you but my healing power is 400 less than yours. Everything else is within like 2-3% of each other in terms of raw base stats. (I’m using all exotic accessories if that matters)

Mess around the the PVE build editor, I managed to get almost exactly his stats with exotic gear, minus a random 40 something attack power (which may actually just be an ascended piece)

Playing on a guardian I don’t think Stealth stomp is Near as bad as the completely immune to everything engineer/ele stomps. At least thieves can be effected by CCs and can be fought off by allies (assuming they are actually hitting them) but the Invulnerable stomps do need to go in some way.

Yeah, kinda laughed at that Idea. Burning as a whole does not do enough damage to kill someone without a large amount of extra damage added in. One of my old builds tried adding in some condition damage (Through food buffs/runes of the undead) and It honestly was not good enough to make it that worth it. The only time it is is for people that like to run such as thieves, mesmers, and eles, and eles have enough cleansing to make it pointless anyways.

There are a few skills that work really well vs stealth, that when used at the right time are great.

GS#5 Binding blade: Hits targets in stealth, will show you were they are, and if they stay in range can be used to pull them next to you. They are knocked down for a second so it does let you open into them with WW, or if you use hammer off weapon you can switch and use Ring of Warding.

Hammer #5: Ring of warding. Very useful but can be negated since both mesmers and thieves have teleport abilities. If you do catch one in it before they go stealth it gives you an area to swing your weapon around in to hopefully hit them.

Any Immobilize is also good such as Hammer 3, and scepter 3, since even if the target stealths, most likely they are still stuck in place. However Be careful of doing this against thieves since most will drop shadow refuge, which you actually want to try to knock them out of ASAP. Best bet for that is Shield #5.

Also, any skills that require channeling will continue to focus on a stealth target when used on them just before they stealth, this makes Torch #5 and Sword#3 decent since you can guess where they are going. Also Focus #4 if used while they are going stealth will still seek them out, and if bounced off you will still bounce back to them.

As LordGustoff said, just keep attacking, if you see your auto attack chain continue then you are hitting something, regardless if you can see it or not. Also, using CC abilities like GS pull, Banish, and Bane signet to interupt the heal is huge, as it negates a good chunk of their healing and generally leaves them in a very vulnerable spot.

Because giving thieves even more burst damage makes complete sense… Guess it is a good thing I run a mostly boonless build for roaming.

Silver.8023:

There’s nothing that really indicates any reason why Flashing Blade shouldn’t at least be a leap finisher.

It is because it is a shadow step mechanic, and thus ignores the laws of immobilize, unlike leep attacks. I dont believe any of the thief teleport abilities count as leep finishers either, which is why it is left without. I think it would honestly be more befitting to be a blast finisher due to its aoe blind mechanic.

Had to leave sadly, did manage to kill another thief but lost to a necro/warrior combo right after. Maybe this weekend we can arrange some duels! Bring friends! :P

Yeah, same build. I keep the soldiers in for the roaming build for the extra toughness because the build does give up some defenses for offense, otherwise I run valk in the off armor pieces for the other builds. And yes, I have build ADD, happens in every game I play where I can switch my build around endlessly with so many different factors. (Rift drove me freaking nuts with it)

I want this thread back, the other one has too much QQ in it… and not enough D list celebrities.

paddygin.6589:

SoR way to give the win to JQ (most likely). You guys are some of the poorest losers i have ever witnessed. SoR this is your server "The Sanctum of Rall server is home to many of the largest and most well known public community event based guilds in Guild Wars 2. The server community is devoted to building a fun and friendly environment for all walks of life and playstyle preferences.
Even before its launch the server was born by friendship and unity. Through the course of our time here on Sanctum of Rall we hope to give a platform for creating friendships, memories, and a community like no other.
http://www.sanctumofrall.com/about/

HAHAthe only thing i see from SoR is tight buttholes and hatred. You guys are a complete digrace to WvWvW. It’s always either JQ vs Bg then oh look SoR wants to join in! Or its SoR vs BG then oh look JQ wants to join in. It might as well be JQ + SoR vs BG.
It’s funny though because you will all be whatever this guys a #%#%# and know nothing about WvW which is fine. This is the perspective of a casual player on BG.

And ill be that’s fine. You all will mostly likely disregard this post because, "Oh look this dude is making excuses when BG is losing, and it’s the truth and SoR is just tired of BG kicking the kitten out of SoR. Yea you guys have a great NA butt hats it you guys do nothing but give PPT to JQ.

A Yak Protector.

/sigh…

Nothing to see here, move along.

Also, @akamon, where were you! I was killing JQ thieves trying to killl my yaks in your BL but never found you

All I have to say as that the new roaming variant is freaking awesome. Has to be my highest damage build yet while still even more tankier than my older builds. (minus the other retribution builds) Cant wait to actually test out the other more group designated builds.

Bah finally able to get into WvW and the server keeps DCing me due to maintenance

akamon.2769:

that was great Jayne. ha, can see it really applying here. maybe… definitely possibly.

so hey everyone, i’m new to MMORPG’s, gw2 being my first, and have heard of this little thing called kitten. anyone care to elaborate?

lastly. why can’t we just all be friends?
snipes your yaks >:DDD

Dont snipe my yaks… I might have to actually fight you then… which we need to do at some point :P

George Steel.1804:

azureai.9764:

George Steel.1804:

You also can’t claim the weapon was “designed to proc VoJ” when GS, Hammer(symbol included) and torch all have multi-hit abilities rivaling sword.

And those greatsword skills have a lot more cool down than Sword 1. (I have no idea what multihit hammer skills you’re talking about.) Also, part of sword’s benefit is it can be paired with torch unlike hammer and greatsword. Even without torch, just start a mob on fire, and sword 1 with Virtue of Justice’s passive will keep it there until the mob is dead. Steady, quick attacks (which proc Virtue of Justice’s passive) is what every one of sword’s abilities scream.

GS + Hammer symbols both proc VoJ. But I digress.

If you are not using VoJ on cooldown, you are doing it wrong. Whether or not the weapon was “made to proc VoJ” is all redundant. In the end, sword’s skills are lackluster due to the many reasons others have stated. Having a mobile ZD and reworking Flashing Blade to do some actual damage would alleviate many concerns.

There are only a few times you should actually use VoJ…. In dungeons where your group is going to cause 25 seconds of burning from attacking one target. In WvW where you are going to burst someone down and have the 10% additional damage to burning target trait, you need the blind from radiance 5 to mitigate a big hit, or something you tagged is about to die.

Keep in mind that condition removal can instantly kill a VoJ activation and screw up your burst pretty bad if you don’t use it correctly. Trust me, laying off the F1 trigger finger in WvW was something that took some time to learn but you get alot better knowing when to activate it or not.

foofad.5162:

I think some folks are missing the main issue. Yes, Sword does have the highest single target DPS. However, when using the exact same build that nets Sword the highest DPS possible, and instead using a Greatsword, you will do very nearly the same damage within a few percent. The ramifications of this being obvious – in any situation where you aren’t hitting just one target, you’re much better off.

Yes, you miss out on off hand skills. But no off hand skill contributes to your damage as significantly as running a Greatsword will. If that’s your concern, then the Greatsword is almost always a far, far better option than a Sword. As a practical matter, you fight multiple enemies so often (compared to single enemies) that the extra killing power you get out of the Greatsword far surpasses Sword.

To be clear, I enjoy Sword except for Zealot’s Defense. And I like being able to use off hand items as well, particularly shield, but Sword and Shield (and Torch, and Focus) are all sub par compared to Greatsword.

Greatsword isn’t overpowered though. Sword is just underpowered.

Why not just run sword/offhand and GS then? It is not like you are restricted to one weapon unless you are engineer/ele. I almost always run that combo just because the vulnerability on blind trait makes them synergize insanely well. Plus the AoE nature of the GS compliments the one target nature of the 1h sword very well.

I never understood why people always compare one weapon to another, compare complete weapon sets not just single weapons, and never 1h vs 2h unless you compare the offhand as well.

Still working on editing my build to how I like to run. Ended up playing some sPvP and found the awesomeness of runes of the pack so I am currently Trying them out. So far the Roaming build seems extremely strong with them compared to melandru, as in 1v1 fights the -40% condition duration is plenty enough for 1 person’s conditions. the added 165 power, 100 perc and the chance for fury might and swiftness is also very noticable, and increases my burst even more. with 12 stacks of vuln and burning on a target I can get up to 2k crits now with auto attacks. Anyways, once I get some more free time I will test it out with the other builds and see how it works. It is obviously a bit less tanky, But I believe the huge damage boost you get for running them offsets the loss. So far here is the current build with stats.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.3|c.1g.h1.d.1c.h19|1.1p.h1l|1n.7c.1c.7c.1n.7c.1c.7c.1n.7c.1c.7c|1i.61.1n.67.1n.67.1i.67.1g.67.1c.61|a2.u6ab.u16c.0.0|15.1|w.1b.15.13.1i|e

Also, SO FREAKING CLOSE to breaking 5k effective power. with any damage based food you do manage it though. Also, you can sub in omnom pies for this build and still do pretty decent, you do open yourself up to more conditions though and you do have to play safer, but against classes that don’t use many i suggest it.

Anything that gives buffs that is originated from you will trigger AH, regardless if it is runes, sigils, skill abilities or traits.

Can I have my T2 thread back please, this one just is not as good of read -.-

Would love that as well. Interested to see which version of the build would come out on top :p I noticed that you were running larger symbols at some point in the video. Do you alternate out the 10 points in radiance often or just depending on what you feel like?

Asmodal.6489:

but now you spent 35 trait points to make it usefull – and still on a single target

Not true, i was just pointing out the full power of his build. The 10% damage increase is plenty enough as it is. Also, the condition talent also applies to any foe with any condition, just like any burning on any other foe. Between AoE blinds, which can also be traited for vulnerability, its very easy to get radiant power active on multiple foes.

Asmodal.6489:

i do not know which game you are playing but imo most dungeons focus on fighting groups of mobs until you reach the final boss.

Once again, your in a group, add in another guardian or an Ele and you have perma burn on most if not all targets. I don’t get why you keep applying single character mechanics to something that you have to group for. Maybe you are the one playing a different game than us?

Highest single target damage out of the the weapons we use is it’s respective area. The sword’s only flaw is that you have to trait for it to bring the best out of it, but getting 1.9k auto attack with 3k crits on the third hit is pretty nice. you do need to trait 30 into radiance to get that though.

for picking up damage? no there really is not. keep in mind you also get 100 power and 10% condition duration from picking up 10 in zeal. which already adds damage. increases the uptime of your radiant power damage, and also causes burning targets to take a total of 20% extra damage. Also, his build does use torch, which torch #4 is an aoe pulsing burn…

Even without that, once again, we are not the only class that uses burning, and in what case are you not going to be running in a group that you fight a group of enemies? Maybe in open world PvE but you really don’t need to be min/maxing there. Dungeons you will have groups, WvW you can solo roam but at that point you are generally single targeting if you run into a group anyways. So where exactly is the trait so pointless as not to take?

Judges intervention is a 3 second aoe burn, using virtue of justice gives the 5 second burn to 5 other people near you who may be attacking other targets, burn on block trait in valor can very easily AoE burn when being focused with shelter active in a group, purging flames in a pure AoE stacking burn. not to mention the virtue trait to make justice an aoe pulse burn. We have ALOT of ways to apply burning for multiple builds. And not only that but in group play other people’s burning counts as well. get a couple guardians or an ele in the mix and groups can have perma burn on them at once. I would hardly say its over rated trait at all..

Star Ace.5207:

Bakitten291:

As much as I would love to not run 30 valor, its just to over powered not to, and will almost always lead to better numbers. (except for the healway build but that is pretty much the only exception.)

There are many “Healway” alternatives, different than the Healway build offered on this website (thanks to Christos for daring make public his own Healing Gear build, going against the anti-Healing Power crowd.) Many of them work well even without 30 Valor. In short, it’s a myth that the “best build” is an AH build-for many players, it’s something else.

Popular doesn’t make something “better”, as in this game each person’s favored playstyle has to be taken in consideration. I do like Altruistic Healing, BTW, it’s just that I dislike a lack of willingness to try other things that work great as well. To each their own, though-I respect the right for every Guardian to prefer AH as long as they leave me alone when I use something else that I know works for me.

(Granted, if your Healing Power gear is insufficient, I’d say AH is a great option, since you hardly need to have Healing Power in order to reap its benefits. In my world, 300 Healing Power is really, really poor (note: my opinion, based on my playstyle and when I go about farming with my MF gear, which really, really sucks healing-wise.) Perhaps why most offensive minded people prefer AH over anything else.)

I actually use monks focus in 90% of my builds, but that is beside the point. the point is that valor is actually to strong of a trait line, 300 toughness, 30% crit damage, and 2 of our best self heals all in one line is near impossible to pass up. This has nothing to do with popularity but with actual numbers. Almost all Damage based builds and alot of defensive/balanced builds gimp themselves without taking the 30 in valor just due to what it brings to the table. To the builds that don’t use it I salute you, but the sad fact is that in most builds it is just purely better from a stat and passive perspective.

Have to say I’m rather interested to see how this week will turn out. Normally we lost the weekends to Kain then took over for the rest of the week, so it is odd to see us ahead this early, but I’m sure the weekly turnout will be different than T2. Also, Hate being red, we have been green for too long and its throwing me off. I keep looking for enemies when taking supply camps thinking someone walked in >.<

So after a bit of testing the omnom pies I have to say that food becomes a personal choice now. The pies are still decent and for 1v1 should still be sufficient. However because the build has 3.2k armor, and already has built in condition duration resistance, I found that the lemongrass soup still works very well with the roaming build, just because of the flat out defense it offers. The general damage you end up taking is actually low enough that monk’s focus is enough to keep you up long enough for almost any 1v1 fight, and it also makes conditions a non issue again.

I plan on doing a full re-write of the different builds, uses, and playstyles within the next couple of days, and will hopefully be posting some gameplay videos within the next couple weeks. Though do not expect anything too high quality as I am fairly cheep and don’t run the most amazing of computers…

Any effects that say that they proc on “healing abilities” strictly mean your #6 heal skill. No other abilities that cause healing effect those procs.

I would not say it is useless, but it is somewhat lacking, upping the heal a bit would be nice, or moving it down to a lower tier. Amins and I (mostly Amins since I just modified his original build) run a 30/10/30/0/0 build that utilizes it and it does what is needed. The healing does add up over time, and in group fights where you are hitting multiple targets it isn’t too bad.

GS is highest for anything hitting more than 2 targets, maybe only more than 1. For one target, 1h sword + torch or focus is higher. focus is only more damage if you can land the explosion on #5.

Aegis does indeed show up over the shield. dont have any pics but last time I saw it that was the case.

Happened before too, new conditions cannot be applied to you while channeling the skill, but any conditions you had on you before will still tick.

Well the CD on the proc is a second, so 1v1 that isn’t too much of an issue, it does lose alot of healing when fighting multiple targets though. I havent been able to test it too much though, and doubt I will as far as roaming goes until tomorrow morning.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

I don’t even understand what that note meant. All I know is that I can still keep retal up 100% of the time and it still does as much damage as it did before.

And that this build just got even more powerful with the PoV fix and the introduction of Cleric’s ascended gear. Squeeee…erm, manly squee.

You cant have more than 5 sources of retal up at one time, like if you use all your virtues, SYS and SYG, and leaf finish through a light field, the leap finish wont add retal

Kaim.5483:

Reduced the number of maximum of stacks of Retaliation allowed to five (was 25). Duration still stacks.

This part doesn’t make any sense. Retaliation didn’t stack in intensity so how was it 25 stacks before ? It still not stacks in intensity now, so this just means no change, does it ?

I played around with it, what it means is that you cannot have retaliation stacks from more than 5 sources at once, so say you used all of your virtues, save yourselves, and stand your ground and once, any other sources of retaliation would do nothing, like say a leap finisher through a light field. Honestly it doesn’t really do much at all, since there would be no point in causing that my sources at once anyways, and once one of the original source’s time was up, it allows another source to activate, so you just have to wait a few seconds for a virtue source to wear off.

NerdyMike.2695:

Bakitten291:

My point is that they are killing off the 1h crit builds, which are the only builds that bring out the full potential in the sword. Depending on the life steal rate of pies, we might not have enough health return to justify the build anymore.

No not quite – The Healway Guardian (by the “default” standard build) utilizes the 1H Sword.

True, but only if you choose it to be. you get nothing better out of using it compared to any other weapon. You can easily use the healway build to the same degrees with scepter or hammer or mace if you so choose. And I will repeat, it is 1h CRIT builds that took a hit with hits. The builds that focus around the sword use.

Edit: Also, just did some testing, the CD is 1 second, since I got it to proc twice while using WW on a group of mobs. While not too bad, this will cause a loss of healing when using things like ZD, WW, or any AoE attacks.

Hicci.8761:

Bakitten291:

Bloodgruve.6038:

Soryuju.8164:

Also, forgot to mention:

“Food items that give special bonuses upon a critical hit now have an internal cooldown before they can produce the special bonus again.”

I see this having a huge impact on the PvE/WvW meta for all classes, but for Guardians in particular, with our emphasis on passive healing. I think it’s a positive change, but I might be biased, since I never ran Pies in either mode (kinda saw them as a crutch, to be honest).

One thing I really liked about this game was the build option. Been running and gearing a Sword dps build which may not be viable any more. Losing this options just forces AH more IMHO. Without testing I’m going to say this potentially killed a fun build. Sad.

Blood~

Well, First the 1h sword crit with AH/VP gets nerfed, now just the standard 1h sword crit build gets nerfed again. We are seriously at the point where 1h sword has almost no viability.

Some people still use them to close gaps and create a small “safe mode” with zealots defence. Also it’s fast.

My point is that they are killing off the 1h crit builds, which are the only builds that bring out the full potential in the sword. Depending on the life steal rate of pies, we might not have enough health return to justify the build anymore.

Bloodgruve.6038:

Soryuju.8164:

Also, forgot to mention:

“Food items that give special bonuses upon a critical hit now have an internal cooldown before they can produce the special bonus again.”

I see this having a huge impact on the PvE/WvW meta for all classes, but for Guardians in particular, with our emphasis on passive healing. I think it’s a positive change, but I might be biased, since I never ran Pies in either mode (kinda saw them as a crutch, to be honest).

One thing I really liked about this game was the build option. Been running and gearing a Sword dps build which may not be viable any more. Losing this options just forces AH more IMHO. Without testing I’m going to say this potentially killed a fun build. Sad.

Blood~

Well, First the 1h sword crit with AH/VP gets nerfed, now just the standard 1h sword crit build gets nerfed again. We are seriously at the point where 1h sword has almost no viability.

Well after some more playing around, I have created a third build in my retribution builds. Since I did not have a roaming build yet, which was partially annoying me since have the time I am in WvW I roam, I figured I would make a Roaming variant. This is the traditional 10/30/30/0/0 build, but with a very high defensive twist. The Build is as follows:
Retribution: Lone Wolf
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3|c.1g.h1.d.1c.h19|1.1p.h19|1n.7r.1c.7r.1n.7r.1c.7r.1n.7r.1c.7r|1i.61.1n.67.1n.67.1i.67.1g.67.1c.61|a2.u6ab.u56c.0.0|55.1|e

Utilities: Signet of judgement, Smite Condition, Judge’s Intervention
Heal: Shelter
Elite: Renewed Focus.

I switched out the lemongrass soup for omnomberry pies as condition removal is not as much of an issue when doing 1v1 fights while roaming. Also picking up purity and smite conditions puts you at 3 condition removals as well, while still keeping the -25% duration from Melandru runes.

The biggest thing though is the fact that you are running a 3.2k armor while using the 1h sword, combined with signet for another 10% damage reduction, the healing from pies, and the healing from meditations it is an EXTREMELY durable build. This build fairs best solo or in small groups, though testing it with a zerg did yield decent results, but requires more careful gameplay.

Once I have the time I am going to do a full write up for all 3 of my self named “Retribution” series builds. But just figured I would share the final variant of it for now.

EDIT: This version of the build needs to be retested thanks to the omnomberry pie food change. Certain things may change due to this.

Hate to be a stick in the mud, but running 10/30/30/0/0 would yield about the same results if not better. Dodge roll healing does almost nothing without healing power, And elusive power requires you to be at less than 100% endurance to be optimal, which is fine, but it seems to me like you would have to waste at least one dodge just to get highest damage uptime. Also, I feel the armor is too low. Vitality is obviously great to have, but toughness scales so much better with our self heals, and in return the healing from omnomberry pie.

Your current build sits at
Effective Power 4645.44
Effective Health (EHP) 25106
Damage Reduction 29.52%
based on the site, where as with 30 valor with monks focus, med mastery, and retributive armor runs at

Effective Power 4848.97
Effective Health (EHP) 24042
Damage Reduction 36.8%

You lose 1000 health, but gain 200 effective power, about 7% damage reduction, and a bit over 4% more crit, which procs more omnom pie. You also gain more self heals from monks focus at 1800 per use. All this is constant too, instead of relying on being at <100% endurance.

As much as I would love to not run 30 valor, its just to over powered not to, and will almost always lead to better numbers. (except for the healway build but that is pretty much the only exception.