Guild Wars 2

Fext.3614:

I want to be ranged and use bow. This is rangers trademark weapon so I do not really care

This pretty much sums up why Rangers are kicked on site. Most share Fext’s sentiments of wanting to run POS weapons.

Stats do matter at end game big time. Check out this video comparing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-7gVxk_b2M

As for right now, just stack dat power for leveling.

As far as advice for surviving. It comes down to Reflect/Blind/Block/Dodge. Also shelter is a better heal skill, since it will actually mitigate and heal, while being on a shorter cool down.

Anicetus.1253:

knives.6345:

Anicetus.1253:

I’d take the one with the better communicational abilities. And if both understand english, I take the one with the more fashionable armor.

So you interview people for some time before getting inside?

Yes.

You have to at least take them to dinner before getting inside. What kind of manners do you have!

laharl.8435:

kyubi.3620:

Such mechanics are blatantly a bug you know? Stacking is a form of glitch wich prevent the boss using some of its mechanics (aka spider venom) Boss should keep using their mechanics regardless of player positioning on the map then wed see who can actualy ’’dance’’ the best at the spider queen

“Stacking is a form of glitch”

oh kyubi…. the new a t s e ?

TBH, he is more tolerable than a t s e. Kyubi doesn’t go on prolonged responses of pure stupidity. He generally says his views in a decent way. He just happens to have some silly views, that’s all.

UltraFlyingTaco.7452:

1- I use greatsword and axe+wh (greatsword let’s me dodge,which is critical for 1 hit bosses)

2-Yes.

3-Yes.

4- Spider and jaguar/jungle stalker for might.

5- No, I use soldier with zerk trinkets.

I am a dungeon forums frequenter. And the axe on a ranger is seen as a giant No No. That thing is terrible, and will often get you kicked. Running stuff like that will create the bag stigma people have with Rangers. The Longbow is the obvious kick on sight, but axe rangers are generally viewed as not knowing their class(I’m not being mean here, just letting you know what the perception is).

Same as Guardian. If they join the dungeon holding a staff, mace or scepter then they get the boot. Unless its TA, and the staff is only for clearing blossoms.

Point I’m trying to make, is that Rangers dig themselves their own grave by running terrible builds, then it makes everyone who plays the class suffer. The reason why guardians are often saved from being so strictly banished, is because people are dumb. A bad guardian is a bad guardian. They should be booted just as quick as bad rangers, but the general masses of pugs don’t know how to properly filter out bads from goods, so they just use the “kick all X class”.

Any group worth their salt will keep a ranger who has:
1.) sword
2.) spotter, frost spirit
3.) zerker

So if you run the right build and get kicked. Its their lost. If you run a bad build, then you are to contributing to the negative stigma of your class.

Just curious if you answered yes to all those questions(except the pet one, since that isn’t a yes or no).

Do you use sword as your primary weapon? Do have spotter and use frost spirit? Which pet do you use? Do you roll zerker?

I find as you get around 10k achievement points, players tend to be bad. I would never use this as a filter. But from my experience, people who have 5 digit AP, are generally bads.

Also I sit at around 3.5k AP, and could careless if others think I’m a newb for it.

Norns have odd posture. They seem to have one shoulder dipped down, and it makes them look awkward.

Asurans are too small to show anything off. Several times I don’t realize they have legendaries until I follow the footprints to the little things.

I’m indifferent to Sylvari, but out of the 3 I’d choose the lettuce heads. I personally prefer humans, but Sylvari are close enough I suppose.

Lucentfir.7430:

Dynnen.6405:

The Great Al.2546:

I would love to see Vigor gone from the game, or at least made very hard to gain as a boon.

The whole reasoning behind the current Berserker meta is because the ‘best’ players can dodge whenever necessary, removing the need to trait defensively. How can they dodge so much? Permanent or near-permanent vigor gained through extremely accessable traits and sigils).

For example, the fact that a guardian has access to essentially permanent vigor means that they don’t have to rely on their various blinds and aegis. Removing that vigor means that they have to play more cautiously and their party wide support is more greatly appreciated.

Thoughts?

Guardian HAS to play cautiously all the time. Low mobility, no soft CC, bottom tier hp…the Guards that don’t play cautiously get get shredded quickly

^This

Ever been kited by a mesmer, or condition spammed/bombed before? I know I have a bunch of times. Without any soft CC or actual decent swiftness uptime(Convenient, not the bull attached to staff SoS or Retreat!) guardian’s are bottom tier of mobility and pressure tree(not as bad as necro mobility but necro has a crap ton of soft CC and such to control foes) Guardians already have to choose between survivability or the ability to do damage. Spvp bunker guard is the only real TPVP use for them, and some certain extents, meditation guard for DPS orientated builds. Nerfing vigor on guard is gutting their survivability more. Lowest HP tier, and has to be active with defense abilities (Aegis, Blinds) protection is only good against power builds. Guardians easily get gunned down by condition overloads(Not enough condition removal to keep up with reapplication) due to low Health pool. Vigor nerfs will only lead to less healing from selfless daring. it’s also possible they are reworking energy sigil as well.

^This ^This ^This

kyubi.3620:

Principe of the invulnerability phase is to force the player to focus on their survivability rather then their damage.

Dead God shoot me if I read another one of Kyubi’s threads…

kittenball.1086:

A group I was in the other day kept stacking and dying on Spider in AC…

After several fails, I suggested we attempt the boss normally, no stacking. This idea prompted questions like “Are you CRAZY??” and “WTF?”; my party did not agree.

Well, after getting our kitten handed to us several more times, they decided to give up stacking and fight her in the big room like I previously suggested…

We won easily, first try.

Sure, It may have taken 20% longer, but at least we didn’t end up as a pile of bodies. When you actually have room to breathe, skill becomes a factor, rather than standing in a corner spamming buttons; hoping your HP is high enough to soak up the next big boss attack.

How in gods name did they mess up the spider stack? It’s simple. Don’t move out of corner. And actually have dps. Profit?

Vox Hollow.2736:

Its a super outlier extreme case of killing Lupi. Yet you use it as a basis for change….

The DPS meta isn’t getting changed because of Record Lupi Speed Kills.
It’s because it genuinely needs looking into from a mid-level-play and even new-player-experience perspective.

Stunts like this are just spectacular and interesting examples of our overall balance problems, not the actual reason people think we have a DPS imbalance. The record for Lupi could be ten minutes and the DPS imbalance would still be a major problem for this game. So, who cares how frequently it occurs?

That was to the OP about what this thread is discussing. Not to whatever dps meta agenda argument you bring up. My point, was this thread is meaningless unless pugs can start doing this with ease. Then yes! That would be imba. But when the best players in the game take hours to achieve this.. Well then I don’t see a problem.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

That would be the idea. =)

I got a good one too. Cancel the crit damage change

kyubi.3620:

nah we more talking about 3 to 2 minute… its not much time in your day just what it normaly takes to down something that is supose thats actualy be difficult to kill.

In case you can’t figure it out. Any of these speed kills with super fast times, require a lot of planning and a certain amount of Lupi luck. You can’t get 7 7 7 7 runs back to back. It just doesn’t happen that way. Nor can you grab any 5 people with Lupi experience to pull this off.

Its a super outlier extreme case of killing Lupi. Yet you use it as a basis for change… Come on man….. <—-Say that in Chris Carter’s voice.(reference http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fhCks3bvTdA#t=24)

Might as well just nerf any combo of weapons and armor that can kill Lupi quicker than two minutes. So all kills will mimic Kyubi’s groups speedruns.

Human Male. Boom!

Lilith Ajit.6173:

group not understanding that being poisoned at Malrona is a good thing

This x1000. I get myself poisoned, cast WoR. I then see hardly any damage done to her, only to realize my great teammates cleansed my poison….

ODB.6891:

If there are not supposed to be any tanks, then there should never have been gear suggesting tanking. The same with healing. The only way they can force players to be on semi equal terms (at least with gear) is to provide a “uniform” for pve play. Just like they had to force players to stop being magic find leeches in pve…they should do the same with other misleading gear/stats.

The choice to tie WvW with PvE is where this all becomes a sticky situation. Since the optimal gear is on opposite ends of the spectrum for each game mode. Unfortunately, this means players will keep seeing builds on youtube of l337 WvW builds, and trying to bring them to PvE.

InfinitySoul.9240:

Hey obal, great guide as usual. Out of curiosity why do you not run rhs in your s/f builds? Especially the 20 25 0 0 25 that you mainly use even pre-nerf? Sorry if it’s already been asked search function on this forum doesn’t work for me.

This is because the GS+Sw/Focus skill rotations is our max dps. So by getting more power plus 5% more damage on GS benefits our overall dps, more than getting some 5% overall crit chance, and 20% more crit chance for our Sw.

looky here:
http://s27.postimg.org/nf571pco3/guarddps.jpg

original post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guardian-dps-numbers-for-various-builds/first

You’re title says TPvP, then your final question is about yoloqueue. So which is it?
Also, when you play bunker guard, I assume you are always in team fights?

obal.3218:

Bumbler.7581:

I blame you for the prevalence of staff guardians!

It only gets worse if you look at the bottom of my signature. Someone actually pm Brazil saying that it was good and referenced my vid

Brazil also made a video suggesting to run GS+Staff combo. So…. There’s that.

Don’t make the shield. You will feel forced to use it everywhere, and quite frankly its a POS for PVE. Literal POS. Not sure what more to say. If you primarily do WvW, I guess you could find a way to force it into a build. The only place I find it good, is PvP, so you can push enemies off the cap. Other than that, I find it pure kitten .

Just make bolt, and be happy!

Here you go hommie. The best guardian zerg guide on youtube.

J Eberle.9312:

True, or you could do both, but either way having staff on either wep set during combat is just no from a dps perspective.

If I could run sword offhand staff, I’d totally do it. Even if staff offhand was useless. Dat true Gandalf build would be beyond tempting….

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_09-1_TXF3BQ/TJV17UCLanI/AAAAAAAAAMI/-fRCKZjYOKM/s1600/Gandalf-Glamdring.png

J Eberle.9312:

Rising Dusk.2408:

That’s assuming you keep 25 stacks of might up for the whole fight, right? What about the case where you have a pub that doesn’t use might at all beyond the occasional FGJ? Would that rotation still be preferable to using staff to stack might before the combat engages?

As stated earlier, if in a team of useless pugs- You can do this, but then take it entirely off go to your inventory and replace it with a greatsword.

I’d just suggesting blasting your Purging flames with hammer#2, and focus#5. Swap hammer out for GS, then leap finish off it to get that shield thingy that gives might stacks when hit. After that pop VoJ to get more might stacks. With that you should have healthier stacks, without the useless staff.

Here is obal’s advice on rotations. I disagree with the shorter fighter bit, but it works. The extended fight rotation is more or less what I use.

“DPS Rotation for extend fights – GS2 -> GS4 -> GS3 -> GS5 if no pull is needed -> GS auto until GS2 is up -> GS2 -> Swap to sword -> Focus 4 -> Focus 5 if not needed for survival -> Sword auto until 1s after swap is available -> repeat GS and sword rotation

For short fights I use GS2-4 -> Sword"

Main difference for me, is I don’t use Foucs#4 unless I need to blind something to avoid a hit, and not just for vuln stacking since I have warriors for that.

Rising Dusk.2408:

With the appropriate build, Sword autoattack does just as much if not more dps than GS [citation needed, but I got the idea for this from a DNT build video awhile back] and provides greater utility in the form of AOE blind/vuln. There is really no benefit to having the weapon swap on a Guardian unless you need the utility of the GS (5 skill) or you really need the extra endurance from an Energy sigil (or possibly a Battle sigil, though Force/Night is still better where appropriate).
.

Sounds like you are referring to Brazil. Sword will give more dps than GS camping. But the point is to use GS+Sword rotations for maximum DPS. It combines superior GS burst, with superior Sword AA.

foofad.5162:

While Shield does have some pretty decent utility in range-heavy fights in PvE, it never compares with Wall of Reflection. Hammer is irritating because it knocks enemies away from you. Bow is completely useless.

It has its glimmers of awesomeness. Like giving you 30 seconds of not having to dodge versus alphard. And other place where reflects don’t matter as much as just blocking. Like in fractals.

kyubi.3620:

Mind explaining me something? i run Meditation guardian 10 0 30 30 0 and its actualy suposed to be somewhat close to top possible damage. Prety much the only class i cant manage to get big numbers with however and god knows im full zerker so why oh god why i cant manage to crit foe with a greatsword spin for more then 6k total without buff, da hell my warrior can hurts more then that without even running pure damage! Maybe its because i dont have might stack and perma fury or food but im still curious as to why i cant at least get 10k+ unbuffed with spins while warrior deals more from average spells..

PS: i aint trying for a support guardian im looking for maximum dps guardian so wich spec is it -_-

Your crit chance is trash, you missing out on about 25% damage modifiers at the very least, and 49% on the higher end of damage modifiers if you go BD.

Swap to 20/25/0/0/25, with full zerker scholar, and in scale 80 dungeons vs bosses, you should always hit over 10k. Using your own vuln applications plus having the enemy burn, will have you easily hit over 10k(generally hitting 19k is easy with warriors in your party; 25k+ requires a good team who can give might and vuln).

Time to ditch your build, and step your game up.

OIIIIIO.7825:

I’m Pretty sure we can all blame Vol.7601 for this. It’s got to be his signature.

“How to make 8-12G/HR ? http://i.imgur.com/AMoiQaC.png”

Its when people take the greatest guide to WvW and bring it to PvE.

laharl.8435:

Tongku.5326:

Sigils are getting changed so Superior Sigil of Energy and Stamina will become much more effective compensating for this to a large degree.

So the verdict is still out on dodge builds not just for guards but all classes.

How are those sigils becoming much more effective? At least sigil of energy is pretty effective already.

Sigil of energy.

-On swap now turns you super saiyain for 10 seconds.

Tachii.3506:

Same goes for AC. It doesn’t matter what kind of description I put, there will always be some bigshot who think they can handle the spiders and go down, staff is brilliant for spider aggro and burrow kiting. The extra DPS from sword/focus is usually not needed due to icebows.

For spider aggro, just kill the low level spiders that die in one hit, and that will chain all the aggro, including the queen. I just GS#3, Sword#2 to move quickly around and kill those weak ones, then run myself back to the stack.

Bumbler.7581:

I guess I mean the ones around the wurm you are killing at the moment. By the time you get to the great wurm (where your risk of dying becomes greater), the blooms closer to the outside should have respawned and you can safely rally off of those no problem. It’s just nice running to the next worm and not losing a bunch of health to those stupid blooms.

I too clear the blossoms with my guard if there isn’t another class that can take care of it. It helps keeps the pugs from making things more difficult. Other than that single fight, I never have staff equipped for actual fighting sections.

This isn’t for dungeons right? You mean like open world temple farming right?

Dolan.3071:

Retreat from the get go, round corner, Shelter through silvers, chain Sword 2 and Judge’s Intervention up to the Lesser Ooze’s, Focus 5 through them for safe measure, GS 3 once I’m far enough through to not put myself in combat
If I do it right the left Drakes won’t have aggro’d, and the first few will spit their poison somewhere off to the right near the cliff after I teleport, leaving a clean(ish) path for those walking up the left. Keeping left to pop Jotun once I’m in, burying the left side in poison but keeping the middle clear.

Of course if I’m in a guild run then I just yolo through and aggro everything, a small sentiment of revenge for the hundreds of times I’ve had to deal with their back aggro

Retreat out the gate is so wasteful. You already have one free aegis from your virtue. So I prefer to let that one tank one hit, then re-up on the aegis with retreat as well as topping off swiftness.

As far as sword and JI, I generally never bring those for skipping. I enjoy a good ward for my team. And the drake aggro was if a warrior does it in front of me, since they are quick little buggers.

kyubi.3620:

Well she wasnt so easy yet 1 year ago but eh i didnt had a 5 zerk optimised party either. Took 7 hour total to take her down (we had necromancer and a tank warrior lol)

Since the original nerf she has been easy for any group. So we aren’t talking original simin, which from what I heard took actual coordination.

Dolan.3071:

The p1 trash skip isn’t that hard provided
A) There aren’t lingering Oozes/eye turrets in the Champ ooze area, having to burn some mobility or blocks/evades there can really set you back as you run into the mobs.
B) You’re not dealing with back aggro, back aggro in any trash skip makes it infinitely harder (which is why I usually despise GS Warriors who yolo in without a care in the world, leaving slower professions to get picked off by the disorganised shamble of chaos left in their wake.) By all means, use your Rush and Whirl, ONCE WE’RE PAST THE BULK.
> Cue poison clouds as far as the eye can see reducing your FPS to a standstill.

This holds true for experienced players of this run. For newbies, they often don’t know when to save skills for whats.

Example: On my guard for the second skip I always:
1.) GS#3 past the first group of risen
2.) Dodge ->Retreat
3.) Continue running to either the right of the drakes if I’m first(which is rare), or to the left of the drakes and avoid the poison clouds.
4.) I generally am not in combat during this run, so I just keep running forward to the ooze field
5.) I will delay my charge in the ooze field until my GS#3 is off cooldown, then I leap over half the field
6.) Switch to staff, then do Staff#5
7.)Profit.

What noobies do:
1.) Turn corner, get bombed by silver mobs
2.) Waste any invuln/heal skill they have recovering from the early bomb
3.) Take a bad route into the large oozes, wasting their condi removal
4.) Have no leap skills/heals/invulns for when they reach the mini ooze field
5.) Die

Lilith Ajit.6173:

:(

<3 <3

laharl.8435:

Then you’ve never sold when Heitred is online. Using fillers doesn’t protect you from party merge.

That bug Dub posted where you join parties in rapid succession? Otherwise, one person can’t merge only join, am I correct?

Lilith Ajit.6173:

I guess I’m not sure I understand how the cof room was an exploit….

It was an obvious part of the map, decorated, textured, was obviously open……..

How was that an exploit?

Obviously anything that isn’t a full clear of a dungeon is an exploit. I expect more from you Lilith!

spoj.9672:

p3 p4 jp was fixed. You can no longer solo brie so that stops selling on p2 somewhat. You can still skip lupi and go underwater for p2. :P

How did they stop brie solo?

Xhyros.1340:

WOW, WHAT A HUGE BUFF! Now I don’t have to dodge as often to keep the 10% damage while not full endurance trait active!

People actually rely on that trait? Generally only bunker builds even hit that deep in honor. And with their low crit chance, its generally not even perma vigor to begin with.

foofad.5162:

Well, not much will change in terms of tactics with this change alone. But I don’t think this is a tactics-changing… tactic. I think what Anet is doing is basically putting the brakes on blowing through encounters so quickly. It’s not a huge speedbump, but I think it will be a noticeable one. My guess is, it’s the first step in what will likely be a more comprehensive reworking of statistics and their value, coupled with dungeon and general PVE redesigns. They’ve redesigned dungeons and encounters before, and I think they’ve been dropping hints about redesigns for months, what with their rhetoric about the living story potentially changing dungeons and all that. We’ve seen them tip-toe into that kind of thing already with TA.

Anyway, long story short, I really don’t think that it’s all that obscure what’s going on. They’re slowing down the pace a bit, likely in preparation for other changes.

What this patch shows me, is that pugs are going to get that much worse. Crit damage nerf means, things like proper might stacking will become very important. And since pugs can’t be bothered to run good builds, good luck trying to coordinate nice stacking without a class who can keep high team might.

fadeaway.2807:

I just wish there was a half decent radiance trait to take in the mid-tier.

You mean 10% more sword damage isn’t decent?

Hunter.4783:

J Eberle.9312:

I. I also never stated that I ran as a full DPS guardian, that was simply plucked out of thin air.

aaaaaaaaah, there we go. Finally, wasn’t so hard to admit it. Thing is friend, when people on these boards refer to a full zerker guardian, its also implied they run the 20/25/0/0/25 build. Because according to these boards, this is the meta. Full zerker and this build are one and the same for most people because simply there is no point in running 20/25/0/0/25 without full zerk.

Therefore you do NOT run GC on 49 pugs. Thanks for the clarification.

FYI I am not hostile to zerk guardians, my gear is 80% zerk. I am however hostile to people like spoj and co who think there is either full zerk glass cannon, or full cleric healway and are unwilling to even bother discussing anything else in between these extremes. Hence why I call em zerk drones.

Go read Obal’s guide. He clearly states that knight’s gear is ok for people learning the content or that needs the extra help in staying alive.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first

And if you can handle it, zerker gear is best. It kills the fastest. If you can’t survive on full zerk, then there is no problem with that. But to call it not optimal is ridiculous. (this is about gear not build, since I too run hammer for fractals).

Zerker still best for players that know the content.

PvP is where the hit hurts the most. Dodges are our life line….

spoj.9672:

Im curious if no energy sigil lupi solo will still be possible with this nerf. Its already relatively challenging with perma vigor but I imagine it should still be possible with flawless play. You might have to sacrifice an aegis though. :P

And lose the 20% damage bonus! You sir are sick and crazy…

J Eberle.9312:

The only changes I’m likely making are no more RHS so -5 radiance and then +5 Zeal and Bloodlust stacks instead of precision stacks. 20/25/0/0/25

#longlivethemeta.

Thankfully I didn’t make assassin’s pieces. <3 Zerker!

Yup. instead of having a few builds to consider. Its an obvious choice to run 20/25/0/0/25 now. Good job Anet. Way to give us even less diversity :O