Guild Wars 2

Use keyboard for movement AWD, forward and strafing, no back key. Some skills mapped around AWD.

Mouse for rotating. Left or Right click on scroll wheel to dodge. Rest of Skills mapped on mouse keys (G700).

My symbol bomb build:

(includes consumables + sigil of bloodlust)
Power: 2329
Attack: 3429
Crit Chance: 41%
Crit Damage: 80%
Armor: 2818
HP: 17435
Healing Power: 300

CoF and CoE are the only times I’m asked to bring my memser. For everything else I bring the guardian.

I can out dps my mesmer in PvE and still bring much more support to my team.

For PvP, you can play any class you want unless you plan on being an organized tpvp team. Generally if you are guardian you are going to spec for mid bunker. Mid bunkers are always sought after. The mesmer is also sought after; but can be replaceable with other classes.

For WWW, both are very useful.

The guardian fills the frontline for an organized zerg I believe better then any profession. They are also great for small man teams.

Mesmer in organized zergs are useful for AoE confusion bombing, AoE shatters, or dazing. They can also be built to be mobile fighters for tasks like trolling zergs, sniping yaks, and contesting keeps.

Please be careful when using that site. It still bugs on me from time to time.

I would choose the crit chance. Mind posting your gear and trait points (you don’t have to disclose the full build)? Maybe there is a way to change something to up your crit chance while keeping your other stats.

[Edit] I misread the numbers and changed to crit chance… now I understand why every onechose crit chance lol

Unless something changed, I think those sigils share a cooldown.

Do not trait or equip with anything, and summon one of the phatasms against a golem and time its death. Do this multiple times (I mean like 100 times for each phantasm).

My results showed swordsman does more damage.

Now I wouldn’t use one or the other based solely on these results.

There is a great thread dedicated on this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/page/2#post1758974

I used the defensive symbol build last night, and in a team its pretty epic. Dropping symbol of swiftness from a distance where ever I want was refreshing too (like on a point!).

I suggest trying out all the aspects of a guardian an decide what you like the most and running with that.

I’d work on getting to 80, playing with all the different traits/skills/weapons. Then research on these forums and even guild wars 2 guru. There is a lot of great information out there.

I would pve, www, and spvp. It offers a different guardian experience in each setting and teaches you skills that will apply to all settings.

With any class, I suggest gearing a little defensively first (p/v/t gear) and work your ways toward being more offensive as you get better. Find your comfort level. Different guardians have different tastes on these forums and you just have to find your niche.

1. Stand your ground
2. Smite condition
3. Symbol of Faith

1. Best skill in the game.
2. Underrated. Removes condition and does a lot of AoE damage. Traited it does this every 16 seconds and heals for 2K. Sign me up.
3. Heals, Damage, Combo Field (condition remover), short cooldown.

You aren’t a warrior!

I think this the OP is joking, no?

I find it hilarious.

Jax, the staff, mace/focus symbol bomb build… how would that work 0.o?

I’m guessing not so much burst but a continuous stream of damage?

Elementalist Owner.7802:

Blasino.3128:

Hughie Wellington.2516:

Blasino.3128:

Pestilence.3184:

Blasino.3128:

Just caught [bank] from BP in AR Hills Lord room with numbers with both gates and walls intact…

Not to complain, its just to notify BP if they want to police their own people. We already sent screenshots and reported to Anet.

who says mesmers inside wasnt hiding?? with thiefs??

You know it is entirely possible (highly improbable) and I’ll leave it up to Anet to decide what happened. We swept the crap out of the keep.

It would mean they had to hide two mesmers, one behind each wall to pull it off legit since everything was intact.

you do know 1 mesmer can portal directly into lords room right?

I didn’t know a mesmer could portal directly into the lords room while everything was intact. This is legit? Forgive my ignorance if that is the case.

Yes, it is possible.

Server A is about to lose hills
Mesmer from Server A hides well inside the keep
Server B takes the keep, and quickly runs to their next objective
Mesmer from Server A notices that everything is clear, calls everybody to rally outside the keep, and ports everybody in.

So are you saying if a mesmer were to hide in inner, they drop a portal and run past the two walls and outside of hills to port the army in? I didn’t realize the range of portal was that far.

Haha the PvP forums generally can have a lot sarcasm =). I remember when I felt like Sheldon (Big Bang Theory) and I trouble deciphering what was legit and what was sarcastic.

I just assume its all sarcastic.

Hughie Wellington.2516:

Blasino.3128:

Pestilence.3184:

Blasino.3128:

Just caught [bank] from BP in AR Hills Lord room with numbers with both gates and walls intact…

Not to complain, its just to notify BP if they want to police their own people. We already sent screenshots and reported to Anet.

who says mesmers inside wasnt hiding?? with thiefs??

You know it is entirely possible (highly improbable) and I’ll leave it up to Anet to decide what happened. We swept the crap out of the keep.

It would mean they had to hide two mesmers, one behind each wall to pull it off legit since everything was intact.

you do know 1 mesmer can portal directly into lords room right?

I didn’t know a mesmer could portal directly into the lords room while everything was intact. This is legit? Forgive my ignorance if that is the case.

Pestilence.3184:

Blasino.3128:

Just caught [bank] from BP in AR Hills Lord room with numbers with both gates and walls intact…

Not to complain, its just to notify BP if they want to police their own people. We already sent screenshots and reported to Anet.

who says mesmers inside wasnt hiding?? with thiefs??

You know it is entirely possible (highly improbable) and I’ll leave it up to Anet to decide what happened. We swept the crap out of the keep.

It would mean they had to hide two mesmers, one behind each wall to pull it off legit since everything was intact.

That is execellent to know. Thanks for the info guys =). I appreciate it. I should have realized the the persistence isn’t really needed, especially in pvp. PvP’rs tend to be smart enough to get out of the big circle.

I started using the roaming builds in PvP for hot joins. I never played a roaming build before in pvp, but holy crap its pretty nice. You can put a lot of pressure on opponents with these builds =). Also, I’ve been a sword hater for a while (still sorta am) but playing with it in PvP helps getting used to it.

Just caught [bank] from BP in AR Hills Lord room with numbers with both gates and walls intact…

Not to complain, its just to notify BP if they want to police their own people. We already sent screenshots and reported to Anet.

Hey Jax,

With the latest patch, I’m seeing more condition builds lately. When holding mid I’m ok 1v1. 1v2 gets dicey I die about 50% of the time. 1v3+ I’m going to die pretty fast.

Any tips or is this sort of the rock paper sicsors of pvp.

I’m thinking almost at this points something like melundru runs could be helpful to prevent stacking of conditions so easily?

If you want to do a lot of damage but still have the ability to heal and support, symbol bomb builds are a lot of fun to play.

Search for Jax and his pvp thread. It has three tpvp versions but they translate well into www with some changes.

If you like burning go for it.

But against a skilled opponent you won’t kill them with a burning build guardian.

Mathematically, a condition build guardian doesn’t touch a burst guardian in terms of damage. Its not even close.

I run my own version of a symbol bomb build. Its a lot of dps in conjunction a lot of survivability.

The orginal build comes from Kaypud’s tpvp guardian symbol bomb build. Its in Silven’s (Jax) thread.

Well this week has been interesting. I have to say that I’ve met some skilled folks running small man teams on both servers. Thanks for the good fights.

Amins

I wish I could find you so we can fight =). You are a skilled guardian. It will be harder to find you now with the patch. All the asurans looks the same now haha.

Yeah Silven (Jax) lists the viable tpvp builds out there. I am a fan of the symbol bomb builds as I use them in WWW also.

For tournament play, I just play mid-bunker. I do not think there really isn’t a prof out there that can do that job better then us.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/60838-math-damage-reduction-toughness-and-vitality/

Here is where he talks about the diminishing returns:

The formula implies that to reduce damage by 50%, you’ll have to double your current armor.
Adding 100 armor for (note the diminishing returns)
a soldier with 2127 armor gives 4.49% damage reduction
an adventurer with 1980 armor gives 4.81% damage reduction
a scholar with 1836 armor gives 5.17% damage reduction

Works nicely on Symbol Bomb builds for PvP and WWW. I currently use mace/focus in a symbol build and use it as my main weapon set for most of the fight. Only time I use Greatsword is to burst down an enemy.

He does says there are diminishing returns in the thread. There are others in posts who pretty much confirmed it hits around the 2900-2925 range. I came to the same conclusion when I calculated it.

Be careful when you use that website it still bugs out. If you switch gear around too often sometimes the stats will not change properly.

“Bunker” in WWW works differently then tPvP. In tPvP you have to do some form of damage, and if you are going against another mid bunker guardian then you basically have to use control to get him off your point because if you are both skilled you won’t kill each other.

For WWW, a bunker build that utilizies AoE Blinds and AoE control is helpful which would include GS, Sword, Focus, and Shield.

As an avid mace user, I’m not sure the skill needs to be changed =/. Its a pretty powerful skill.

In tpvp, it can force people off my mid. Meaning a smart choice to handle a guardian with Protector’s strike up and get away from him and hit him with ranged. Normally that moves them off my point.

In WWW, its a catch 22. Don’t attack me and let me buff myself and my allies, or attack me, get blocked and take a lot of AoE damage.

Armor has diminishing returns. Just google EHP and you will see it in the big thread on guru. Even after reading it, I did the math to make sure that its true.

Now the diminishing returns aren’t big. I mean having 3200 armor doesn’t mean you completely ruined your other stats. But for a min/max’r they wouldn’t stack it so high to make sure they are utilizing the other stats fully with their build.

The other thing about armor/hp is its a crutch or a way to supplement a defensive play style. Its not the end all be all to determine survivability. Dodging and negating damage (which is easy for a guardian) is what matters and that is where your skill comes in in timing those things.

For WWW: Generosity
For PvP: Energy
For PvE: Fire

For PvE you can pretty much go all zerker’s for any content and just trait and utilize weapons and skills properly. Of course if you pug for dungeons then its a different story.

For PvP it depends on the role you are going to play. If you are going to be point assualt, then slot zerker amulet with valk jewel and run a symbol bomb build. If you are going to bunker mid, then run soldier’s or cleric’s with a good bunker build. If you are going to roam (which is rare for a good pvp team) then all zerker’s.

For WWW if you are going to be frontline of an organized zerg then you want to stack these higher as your job is to soak damage or try full healing power with toughness. If you are just running small groups then a balance is good.

2900 is when your bigger diminishing returns start to hit; though they aren’t bad. If you want to min/max this a good soft cap. Vit really depends on how effective your condition removal is and how skilled you are in general. 17k hp is probably a great start then you can work your way down to less hp.

Red Falcon.8257:

Blasino.3128:

With the cooldown to food now, you do not need a high crit chance.

Basically figure out how many sources of damage you can pump out in 1 second consistently to see if you will get a crit out of one of them based on your current chance.

The problem is you pump out 1 attack per second on average, and if that doesn’t crit you don’t get the heal.
If there is a fury-pumping Warrior in the team you can do away with RHS pretty safely but 50% total crit chance will not heal all seconds. Check it.

haviz.1340:

Yours has 4400.

Nah, I just linked the wrong sigil/food in the builder.
With omnom pie and sigil of force it’s 4609.

I agree, though some builds can pump out around 2.5 attacks a second.

With the cooldown to food now, you do not need a high crit chance.

Basically figure out how many sources of damage you can pump out in 1 second consistently to see if you will get a crit out of one of them based on your current chance.

Silven,

If you need help to min/max your gear I’d be happy to offer my services =).

Silven I agree with you that there are generally less skilled www players. I think that is why we tend to think X build is awesome because we can 4v1 terrible players.

I use PvP to improve my skills against very skilled players as I’m a WWW’r first. Like you said, in WWW I drop symbol of faith they sit in it trying to melee me. In PvP they get out of it quickly.

Also, I’m not a fan of Bunker Guardians in WWW. That is why I run a WWW version I made of the symbol build. It has a lot of survivability with a lot of damage. In WWW you can the best of both worlds since gearing isn’t standardized (we can min/max) and we can use consumables.

Akamon and I actually converse a lot, sharing guardian ideas =). We learn from each other with different perspectives on things.

Some suggestions:

I wouldn’t use divinity runes. Either use ruby orbs or runes for the effect. Mathematically divinity runes kitten you instead of maximize you.

Your crit chance is too high and its being wasted since your crit damage is low. Its better to shift those stats into power. I’d switch out some pieces with soldier’s instead of knights or switch some of the knights into zerker’s to bring your crit damage up.

If you are using crit chance just to trigger effects; since everything has a cooldown, sitting around 40% is fine.

I actually run different symbol builds in dungeons, www, and s/tpvp. I have writ of the merciful instead of empowering might and generally run all shouts with soldier runes. I also use Sigil of generosity (more for WWW). Its a pretty powerful sigil and there is a reason why it isn’t in s/tpvp.

I’ve followed your stuff on Guru for a while =). Its a lot of good info. I’ve actually altered Kaypud’s and other symbols builds to a bunker style for s/tpvp. Works great but lacks the CC your mid bunker provides.

I also use a symbol build in WWW/PvE too, and its pretty amazing. I’m really surprised more guardians do not focus on symbols more often. Very powerful tools: offense, defense, buffing, pseudo area denial, and combo field. Built right you can pretty much have a symbol up most of the time.

-Added new dungeon “Gods of Kryta.”
-Added new gear, “Omnipotent” as a vendor reward to completing the new dungeon. This was planned before release and was not implemented due to the developers working hard on creating new backpacks. We apologize for the confusion as this is not a new tier of gear. At a later date a new currency will be created with new ways to obtain this gear outside of the dungeon.
-Legendaries will be changed at a later date to match the stats of the Omnipotent gear after they are changed to match the stats of the Ascended gear.
-Added baby krait backpack.
-Baby krait backpack has new abilities to make them more interesting to wear.
-Necromancers heal 50% less with their life stealing abilities to keep in line with the alteration to food having an internal cooldown.

The cleric’s ascended gear is a big help for this build =). I’m happy for you Chris and those who run this build!

Though I stopped running it, it is a very fun build to use and it just got stronger.

The nerf to the food was coming =). Sadly, I am one of the ones whose builds depended on it.

Ironically, I’ve run something entirely new for the past few weeks and testing it before this patch hit and it hasn’t hurt that build too much. Good thing too, now I can tweak it accordingly.

Its noticeable, but its still better then the mango pies. I definitely cannot be as aggressive anymore on 1vX relying on the pies to heal me quickly.

Like stated before it has way too much crit damage. Crit chance and crit damage need to be closer together to maximize the use of both numbers. The more you stray from one or the other you are getting diminishing returns on the stat.

My bunker/healing/support build does not use 20 in virtues.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Kawsay-Guardian-WWW-Support-Healing-Bunker/first#post1482488

15 in radiance gets so over looked for group support. In a well coordinated group you can spam VoJ which is group burning damage and might stacking. Blind exposure is just awesome, espcially with leap of faith because it stacks with the more targets you hit. You hit 2 targets, they both get 6 stacks… you hit 5 targets they all get 15 stacks. It is a nice boost to dps.

Generally, a good farm group can kill the slave driver before the effigy comes to attack. It usually requires a mesmer and everyone running glass canons.

The warrior could have been used to that, though I’m not sure why he would blame you specifically. It is lame that he did that.

If the effigy comes though, it isn’t your job to keep everyone alive. All it takes is a dodge from the main attack. You can’t force people to dodge =).

look at the table at the end of the wiki link Brutaly linked.

Your last post doesn’t make sense.

You were able to farm all of that gear and test it out for the better part of the week, but the timeline of this thread does not coincide with that.

And you are right you should play what makes things fun and whats fun for your group.

But understand when you are talking about tanking and holding aggro how is it is relevant and you bring no evidence to the table, then you are going to have people dispute you especially with math since that is the basis of any sort of computer programming.

And if you did find such an aggro mechanic, stacking power/vit/tough is probably still not the way to go. Every class has a mechanic that negates complete damage every 10 seconds when not buffed. The guardians have even more mechanics that completely negate damage. That is why you can survive running zerker’s gear in PvE an dungeons. Not only that you are contributing so much more damage then a traditional tank build. Its fine if you want to believe otherwise, but if you happen to do the math you will see there is a big difference. Even running a support build in full zerkers will bring more to the table because negating damage trumps whatever toughness and vit you can stack and killing something quicker means less chance of someone making a mistake and dying.

I min/max and use a mixture of pieces depending on the build.

Changed Ascended loadout. I do not like the gear due to its limited stat combinations. I do not think its needed with this build for www purposes, but it is slightly stronger with it. In addition if you feel like the need for agony resistance. I only run lvl 10 fractals quickly for the daily without any agony resistance.