Guild Wars 2

The best case senario I’ve found against condi meta builds is just to survive against them. Remove what I can and heal through the rest. If they are really good we can’t kill each other, if they are bad I “might” be able to kill them if they don’t run away.

Of course I’ve been running a high Healing Power medi build with MI (I’m actually getting used to the skill). Nothing better then MI into a refuge with your thief buddy.

After this patch, power builds did take a hit, which might mean moving more things into vit over toughness to deal with condis better.

But to your point Chris, it does blow. A nerf to our vigor, useless traits, poor attempts to make a condi guard viable, etc etc. I’m not too thrilled with it, either. The best thing we can do is adapt =/ and be thankful that we aren’t a useless profession.

I’m just seeing people post this is a buff to dps to make up for the ferocity change. I’m not so sure.

I would like to add with the removal of being able to use stacker sigils without the weapon equipped could be a slight nerf in some builds/forms of the game.

Harbinger made a great guide about the WWW guardian:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-World-Vs-World-The-Guardian-and-You/first#post3802553

Please don’t take this as a QQ thread. I’m not complaining but just sharing my thoughts. I’m not really for or against the sigil changes at the moment.

I point at the stacker change. If we unequip said weapon we loose the stacks we gained. Most WWW I am aware of would get their 25 stacks and swap out.

With the new patch 2handers, with double sigils most likely one of them will have a stacker sigil in them and another sigil which puts us back to square one for most builds.

For 1handers, we lost a sigil. Which could have been night, force, accuracy, bursting, etc

Now I know some sigils are receiving a buff, so this could in fact a buff in the end. We will find out when the patch comes out.

My thinking could be off base and I may have missed something.

For PvE I’d still stick with full-zerk, until Anet pushes out content that dictates otherwise.

For WWW, it depends on what you want to do. Also, I’d wait until the patch hits and let the community do its math. There a bunch of us who like numbers.

Looks like it falls in line with what Anet said it would for full zerk. I wonder how this effects build using the crit damage tree or mix/match gear.

Myself, I’ve avoided doing the math for the sake of the patch not here yet. I’m sure it will be 15 = 1, but who knows.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-World-Vs-World-The-Guardian-and-You/first#post3796006

Harbinger did a great job on this.

I agree the 3k hp will have some use. It isn’t the most creative trait but it definitely isn’t absolute trash.

Health is a soft counter to condis. And if you are running some sort of med build the PoV isn’t useful. And with the ferocity changes its possible our honor line will look better for med builds.

I wonder if the virtues trait stacks with vigor?

I want to wait until the patch hits with the ferocity changes before I fully judge on everything, though I share the same frustrations with everyone else.

Thanks for all of the wonderful info here Harbinger.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/RE-Leaked-patch-notes

Regardless of your view on Silven, he is still a skilled guardian and has contributed to these forums and guardian community plenty.

Whether you agree with him or not, his opinion is still credible.

Well today is Saturday, so just two more days!

Since the latest crowd of WWW’rs aren’t running stab or condi removal, I’ve been running this:

CC/Support Build (use bloodlust stackers)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAS7elUgyCXFyMEf4ESmCRCBxegReUHdpIhkIA-jUCBofCy0HBiKAOJtIasFTFRjVNjIqWnEzaeQrW0JWGAzxA-w

CC Features:
-2 Immobilizes
-Ring of Warding
-Banish and Shield of Absorption for push back

Other Features:
-Tanky
-Healing
-Blast Finisher
-Great group condition removal
-Group protection and stab
-Banish + JI, Blink, Shadow Step stomp (great against eles, thieves, mesmers)

Purging Flames update?

Psuedo off-topic but I think Purging Flames needs to be updated too

I’ve had sheltered interrupted also.

Possible there is a slight animation casting time?

And for me it wasn’t a case due to binding blades.

It can get interrupted. I’ve had it done to me a couple of times. I haven’t pinned down exactly what happened, why, or when.

If you are going meditations I would concentrate on DPS and your own survivability.

If you want to support then move to shouts, trait PoV, Absolute Resolution, and Consecrations and use Purging Flames.

I think your build is trying to do too many things and doesn’t have a good focus.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/FAQ-Guardian-Frequently-Asked-Questions/first

Crapgame.6519:

Amins.3710:

Svarty.8019:

THis thread needs to be moved to the Balance forum.

Forum Moderator – over to you!

That would mean they care…

They re-stuck the burning thread… /boggle

Props to that forum moderator. We still need a dev here that reached out to us about having a discussion.

PrZone,

With any build I would always ask, “What am I trying to accomplish?”

And winning 1vX is a testiment to not only your skills but also the other players’ skills.

Weaknesses in your build would include condi removal.

Thank you so much for doing this Danicia.

It’s obvious their plan is just let this die or let the thread got so off topic then the mod has a good reason to close.

As futile as it is, I don’t want those things to happen.

Let’s see some good customer service.

This needs to be bumped.

I wonder if they are trying to break a record to see how long they can ignore us even though they said they were going to respond to us and never did……

We should call Guiness….

It would be absolutely awesome if a dev responds to this thread….

Just awesome.

A lot of it depends on your traits and weapons. There are DPS builds where you pretty much can forgo soldier’s and just do zerk/valk and have good survivability due to our blinds/blocks/invulns.

Of course things are going to change when the Ferocity changes come in.

Scary things is… it used to be slower…

And I wouldn’t say its for old folks, more for the devs. The way I’ve seen them play its more their speed…

Aether the Nob.9172:

Bash.7291:

I find it funny how this thread is labeled a discussion, but its more just a “here is my build, and anything you say against it is wrong” thread.

As far as that build calc is concerned, how about you actually look at it and learn to use it. Effective health is nothing more than your health pool along with damage reduction from armor. Healing power is IMPOSSIBLE to calculate into survivablity like that since alot of it is dependant on the actual player. Any gain you get is on your skills which need to be used. Say you dodge roll at full health to avoid an attack, in that case any healing power with selfless daring is not going to anything to effective health, since you didn’t heal at all. So please, give us the formula that shows that you can calculate that before ripping into a pretty nice build calculator.

Also, as red said above, the manual tab is there for a reason, you can pretty much fix everything from it, including wvw and sigil stacks, as well as if there are gear pieces missing you can manually enter them.

But please, show us this amazing calculator you have that adds in condition damage to effective power and healing power into effective health.

Actually, I was showing Brutally that celestial trinkets can compare with, and possibly out-do other trinkets in some cases. I was NOT looking to fight about my build, and,if anything, was looking for advice as to what gear celestial should be replaced with. Sounds like a discussion to me.

I believe Bash was not replying to you.

Evalia, a lot of what you are posting is opinion backed up by little mathematics and shown gameplay. If you really want to prove your point you will have to really show your math and your gameplay.

And since Celestial covers so much its going to be a lot of math. Then you are going to have to prove your point against other builds and show their math then compare.

Then you are going to have to show the build in actual gameplay with vids. Because math is one thing but actual gameplay is needed. You have yet to do this either.

We have done these things collectively as a community.

If you aren’t doing this you are just arguing for the sake of it. Its one things to say its viable, its another to say its better then X, Y, and Z and show nothing for it.

Other thoughts (if not already mentioned) depending on the crit damage change:

Valor takes a hit. Already lacks group support and the loss of damage will make it less valuable.

Defensive traits become more valuable.

Straight percent damage increase traits become more valuable. One in particular: Zealous blade. Since overall players could do less damage the healing gets a small boost. Since crit damage takes a hit the straight damage increase is more valuable.

Symbolic exposure receives a slight unintended buff too. Vulnerability starts to become more valuable.

Zeal itself starts to look slightly better, since power gains relational value.

Also, poison gains value – 33% less heal.

And finally, some sigils will receive a nerf. Dev confirmed it on the forums (I wish I could find the post). So we could be looking into using Sigil of Doom, Sigil of Blood + Leeching, if its left alone. You can actually pre-set sigil of doom easily on an NPC before attacking a player. Get into combat swap weapons run from npc.

Stand The Wall.6987:

Bringing sword/focus for blinds in large scale wvw is crazy talk.
Pretty sure whirl + light is only 1 condi.

If you look closely its three bolts.

If you are winning 1vX then those players aren’t component.

I wonder if a dev bought into this build…

kitten , we are screwed….

Arlette.9684:

Good =/= optimal

Celestial gear is good at many things, but best in nothing.
It’s good for ironing out your stats but no means to an end.

With the Runes ANet provided us with sort of set bonuses without locking us to a specific set, a mix of different sets will always be better than a single set (unless you’re condi spec in which case Dire is the one true god, or if you’re a tree hugger PvE and Zerker is the best thanks to poor mob/boss design)

Just so you know my stance, I’m anti-celestial for guardians =). I’m not a fan of it.

Well the OP didn’t say best or better then other builds/gearing… so he is right in that it can be good.

I could agree more, but instead I will agree more…?!?

How about you Mr. Anet Dev? Would you agree more? Couldn’t agree more? Couldn’t agree less? Could agree? Could not agree? Agree to disagree? Maybe respond to a thread you said you were going to respond to? Hello? Mic check… 1… 2…. 3

Would be great if folks contribute or criticize. I’m not writing anything for hammer/staff/mace/focus since there is a lot of info out there already on using those weapon sets for support builds (but please feel free to).

Justice is blind (AoE blind when using VoJ):
Secure Stomps
Damage negation for group

GS as a support weapon (wait what?!)
Leap of Faith – AoE Blind: Secure stomps, damage negation for group
Binding Blade – With JI its great opener with a coordinated group that has good AoE. Start Binding Blades then JI into a group of folks, then pull and have your hammer warrios (well hammer warrior), necros drop marks, thief cluster bomb, staff ele’s AoEs, etc. If you don’t slot JI then just use it during a fight when folks blow some of their cooldowns. Regardless, it requires coordination with your team (hard part).
Symbol of Wrath + Whirling Wrath – Three random condition removal if cleansing bolts hit, can use every 20 seconds (16 if traited). I know its not dependable, but you would surprised how often it actually hits.

Sword as a support weapon (gtfo of here!)
Flashing blade – every 10 seconds you can secure a stomp or negate damage for the group. It’s pretty useful. Pair this with a focus and that’s some good blinds there.

^ it’s very helpful.

You know how they are removing the WWW match-up forums? I heard they might remove the the Guardian forums since we are fine and Anet is happy with us. Probably why Devs have stopped posting here and do not discuss things with the Guardian community.

Blocks, Blinds, Vigor, Dodging, Invuln…

And for those videos people normally put their best stuff and edit out the bad stuff. Not saying those players are bad at guardian, it just doesn’t capture the whole picture.

It’s almost like he didn’t read anything the community posted on guardians… or he did and wanted to do the opposite because there is something there we obviously have missed…

I’d argue that the lockdown mesmers are scarier. Best of both worlds, DPS and stuns. Mind Crush and the chillruptor variations are better then the PU.

They are also harder to play which is why you see less of them.

Justice is Blind and Inspired Virtues are really good traits to have.

AoE blind and boons on your virtues help your team much more then having 20 in Zeal.

Yeah you pretty much have to stay on them. JI, GS leap, Sword teleport help a lot.

If you are trying to maxmize DPS/Tanky/Healing then avoid the celestial and mix/match Cleric’s, Zerk, Valk’s.

Your current build you lack DPS since your power is so low.

^ agreed. I was wondering where the numbers were.

Yeah 3rd for Justice is blind.

Symbol Deepz/Support