Guild Wars 2

Buff Guardians.

- Your friendly neighborhood Guardian who only really plays for the LS Season 2

P.S. I haven’t been drinking.

#anetpls

I’ve always hated how big the world of Tyria theoretically is versus how much we know about it/how much of it is used.

I don’t see why it’s difficult to view it as being written by a Kournan/Ossan historian. It’s a part of the game world and is therefore meant to be perceived as being written by a member of that world, not a member of ours (even though it is). Just like any other game, fictional novel, or other story-based medium.

Edit: Plus, it probably really did start out like a peaceful “partnership” before Varesh went loony. There were other Ossas before her, after all.

ASCALON FOREVER!

Well, he’s not wrong. Shelter is just better.

I didn’t honestly think the skill ceiling for PvE was that high. Is there an empirical way to measure PvE skill besides dungeon clear times?

Not to knock Obal or anything, I just don’t feel that the PvE content in this game is as difficult as it could have been. I’ve seen him play, and he’s certainly talented.

I personally treat 900-950 Healing Power as an efficiency cap these days.

I’ve been using Soldier (now called Trooper) runes for some time now. If you don’t feel like you need the extra health and AoE condi removal (or you just don’t use shouts, I guess?), Hoelbrak is apparently really popular as well.

I’m waiting on screenshots.

It appears to have been updated for Ferocity, the Celestial stat increase, the new GM traits, and rune changes (albeit not the names), so it should be valid enough. The trait points just need to be fixed, I think. Maybe the sigils too; didn’t check.

I was going to say Siegerazor, but someone beat me to it.

I have a hard time choosing bests in this game because of how low the skill ceiling is compared to other, more aggressively competitive games. I guess anyone with full-time roster spot in a top (or former top) WvW/GvG guild would make my list, though. Or anyone with full membership status in RIOT.

I’m not sure what to think of top s/tPvP players since I’m under the impression that top play is basically a bunker Guardian (hard to play?) and then a few high-mobility players for circle-capping. Maybe some kind of bunker Engi for holding a second point. Probably running a condi/toughness build of some sort. (I know almost nothing about tPvP.)

Anyway, there are obviously outstanding Guardian players in all aspects of the game. There are guys/girls who are great at sPvP and tPvP (whether as bunkers or roamers), there are those who are awesome at GvG, some who are great at havoc play. Some who are great at PvE, I suppose? So it’s pretty hard to say who’s the “best” without a category system. And even then… that’d be like 3-5 categories per game type.

Could just go classic Healway. Straight Cleric’s with PTV rings, back, and weapons. Staff, Greatsword, Hammer, or Mace/Shield weapon sets (or all of them, depending on preference and situation). Trooper runes, mostly for the extra condi removal. Sigil of Life + Energy on one weapon set, Energy + whatever on the other.

Something like 0/0/20/30/20 or 0/0/10/30/30. Mango Pie, Omnomberry Cookie, or Lemongrass Poultry (or the T5 version). Sharpening Stones to supplement your damage?

Lots of PMs and in-game whispers about this. I consider Healway viable as a jumping off point, as I have for a long time now. Retooling for more damage is probably for the best (especially if you play solo or in particularly smaller groups), but keeping to the basic tanky/group support concepts is still perfectly acceptable.

Edit: Went ahead and made some minor changes to the base group build; more extreme alteration to the solo/small group base build.

>Increases condi duration bonuses across the board, albeit mostly via runes/sigils
>Goes ahead and nerfs boon duration across the board, because why not?
>Introduces new, viable defensive (in one case condi dmg-based) traits for many classes — not us though, don’t worry; especially not any kind of defense vs. conditions
>Reduces critical damage values in WvW (sure, not in s/tPvP, but still)
>Reduces vigor availability across the board — dodging is far more effective against power builds than it is against condition builds once the [spammable] condis are on you
>Nerfs Runes of Lyssa 6-set by adding a 5-condition conversion cap
>Introduces only one somewhat viable GM trait for Guardians (relative to the other options), and it may still hardly see any use because A. 30 points in Virtues is only used in specific builds and B. Endurance regeneration is capped at +100% (Vigor up) anyway
>ANet balance team

Sure, the Valor and Honor GM traits are interesting at best, but look at your other options in those lines: PoV, BP, AH, MF (if playing medis).

Just. Wot?

Who needs balance when you have Wave of Wrath?

because ANet has been #1 in in-game April Fools jokes since 2005. Good kittening kitten. Make sure you guys go and take a look at some giants. Maybe see if you can get some screenies of some dragons.

I’m really glad I resorted to cynicism instead of misguided optimism about the future of Guardians. It saves you a lot of disappointment in the long-run.

Oh my god

By the Six.

Warrior.

/15char

Hopefully the other traits are actually useful (aside from Zeal; I don’t think that line will ever be viable). No decent player is going to take this slapped-together mess of a trait over PoV, especially if the issue is conditions or organized WvW.

Well they should, since it’s pretty much the only way to do it without getting kicked from pug groups. If you’re playing with friends/guildmates who are tolerant of slower runs, ask them what they think you should run or what they would find useful.

foofad.5162:

Filthy casuals.

xFireize.6318:

Seriously… I feel the more I learn about GW2 mechanics, the more likely I am to get disappointed.

Welcome to why so many veteran PvPers have dropped the game to wait for improvements. That, and the meta seems to take an excessively long time to evolve at all.

As it is, this build is more of a guideline than anything. Condition builds are still too strong for me to recommend it for newer roamers without some damage-biased modification. In the last few months I’ve started running a few new DPS builds for my guild (when I bother to log in), but I’m unlikely to post any of those since I really didn’t try too hard with them. Then again, I’ve said some things then done the opposite before anyway.

That said, there’s still a fair amount of success to be had when using this build as a group/zerg support platform.

Very viable for 1v1, but trash it in groups. Random examples may or may not be found in the YouTube link in my signature.

Oh my lawd, some of these changes would make the vigor nerf bearable in sPvP and might actually make me want to log in again.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Will Lucky.8703:

I’ve got a solution to this problem, replace the Lionguard with the Seraph. Just let Queen Jenna reclaim the city from its incompetence now its reason to exist independently is gone.

And put the norn, charr, asura, sylvari, hylek, skritt, quaggan, grawl, ogre, kodan, tengu, and centaur residents under a system of government they can’t participate in. Solid plan, truly.

Satellite government.

Are any of you really surprised?

Tome of Courage is strong. Every Guardian in my guild runs it in group play except for me, and that’s only because I’m the token JI/ring and I’m about as glassy as you can imagine.

I’m not against changing/downgrading ToW though.

Nothing if he’s running more than a single signet and it’s not Judgment (maybe Mercy—maybe). You’ll just be carrying him and his utility-lacking self.

Otherwise, I’ve had a ton of success with Ele and Warrior friends. You can make almost anything work though, depending on the builds you and your opponents are running. I’ve set it up where I run a slightly less tanky Healway and let my friend play glass or close to it. Double glass cannons can work sometimes.

Having him play something sustainable/supportive while you play the auto-GG condition bunker Engi build is another way you could do it. Probably the best way, honestly. If this is for roaming in WvW you’ll be carrying him either way. Relatively.

Glad you liked it. :> I’m going to add the build I use 99% of the time (I only log in like once every other week) to the description in a bit.

Neverminder.3296:

I wish we could trade Shield with Warrior. A stun and a block sound great. I’m kinda mad that we don’t block with our shield at all while Engi can.

It is pretty silly.

I carry everything and sort of just swap in and out depending on mood and what I’m fighting. If it’s something that teleports a lot, I like sword (also fun to use on maps with a lot of vertical terrain). Mace can be useful against Thieves or 2-3 people at once if you can get some good #3s to go off. #3 + focus #5 going off at once is pretty devastating as well.

Hammer and GS are pretty much just mood. Sometimes I like JI/ringing all day, other times I’m in the mood for mass pulls. Sometimes I’ll play with both. I actually gave staff and shield some work the last time I played too. Staff isn’t the greatest, but it’s good. Shield could still do with some CD reductions, maybe just an overhaul in general.

I was bored. It’s a lazily-edited Zerker meditation montage.

Edit: By the Six, YouTube’s data loss is atrocious.

In 1v1, Warriors are definitely superior. This is mostly due to Healing Signet + Adrenal healing and the sheer damage output of weapons like LB and Greatsword when run with damage gear. Their ability to CC is also far above ours with certain weapons.

In group play, depending on group sizes, Warriors and Guardians both have something to offer in terms of boons, condition removal, CC (mostly Warriors), and the niches that their Elite skills fill — namely Tome of Courage and Warbanner.

In PvE, Warrior is the obvious winner in the way the PvE meta works. Max DPS. If you had to make a list of pros and cons, Warriors have more pros and probably slightly fewer cons.

I would ask in General forums, but I like you guys more. And you play Guardians, so you’re already better than most people. :>

I’m a semi-hardcore raider at heart, even though PvP is my main thing here, so I enjoy difficult PvE content as well. The only real PvE challenges I’ve had in this game are soloing Lupi and clearing Liadri in hard mode (8-orb) with some inconsequential gambits.

I see this Warden thing, but I’m afraid of logging in and wasting my time. Are they fun to fight? Are they trivialized by large groups of players? Are some of them genuinely difficult?

What do? And thank you again for being my fount of should-I-bother information.

I’m biased towards Human females because 1) everyone was Human in GW1 and 2) male Humans look weird.

Just run an Absolute Resolution build and you’ll be fine. At least 20 in Virtues, at least 10 in Valor for Purity, maybe 20 if you like the way SiN works (although I only recommend it for at least 5 people). Shouts all the way. Probably Soldier runes instead of Melandru.

As much as you want Fury uptime, it’s not going to happen without gimping yourself in other areas. Rely on your buddies to give you Fury. What uptime you do get + the Sigils of Energy should be enough, especially if you run AR, Lemongrass, Purity, and at least double shouts. I imagine you’ll want to go HTL, SYG, and SY.

I would personally drop Resolve and run Lemongrass or its T5 counterpart instead (-condi duration, +vitality). Shelter is far too powerful to not use in group play, assuming you’re able to use it proactively.

Boon Duration is nice, but it’s better when you have as many boons to put out as possible. I’d go ahead and replace SY with HTL if you’re deadset on playing a boon duration build. Alternatively, Soldier Runes are strong for any group build.

Just some thoughts.

Stand The Wall.6987:

You guys should think about getting 20k hp. Without a lot of hp regen low hp is not a good idea.

You can survive on much less than 20k before food and WvW buffs/Applied Fortitude so long as you’re on top of your active avoidance. That said, you should be running with at least 19k with said buffs active, if not 20.

You’re likely better off with a more DPS-biased build for roaming these days. If you try to go the bunker route alone or with fewer than 2-3 people, you’re just going to be out-attritioned by condition builds. You’ll also be outperformed by Warriors and be stuck in endless duels with other bunker builds.

Ha.

Haha.

Hahahahahaha.

Okay.

I’m also somewhat positive they’ll decide, some number of weeks or months down the road, to implement the Ferocity change in sPvP as well before they ever consider bringing down the Condi/Toughness meta. And before they consider bringing down Warriors.

Or perhaps they’ll nerf Shelter to make Litany more desirable. That’d be fun.

I envy the Guardians who are only interested in PvE in this game.

Talk to me folks. I log in here and there to spar with guildmates and friends in custom arenas. Sometimes I’ll do an hour of 20vBlob with my guild, but it’s very rare that I bother anymore. It just feels very redundant every time I try.

So tell me; has anything changed? Do you feel like Guardians are in a better, more viable spot than they were before December in sPvP? In 1v1s? As far as WvW goes, how many of you still attempt to roam against the roving packs of condi-bombing gank squads?

Is this game worth coming back to full-time without re-rolling Warrior or (the Six forbid) an Engineer? Do you think there’s a meta shift anywhere in sight that will give us some kind of reprieve from the condi/toughness and stealth spamming that is the bane of my existence and sanity? Has anything really changed?

While I find Litany an interesting and refreshing change of pace, after a couple of days of solid sPvP with it I can’t find any reason to run it over Shelter except in duels that you already know you’ll win. It certainly isn’t very useful if you’re being team-focused.

It just doesn’t heal for enough, even in an MF build. Whether you can dish out 35k or 100k damage in 6 seconds without interruption, any smart player will stop part of or all of that damage somehow when they see you pop your heal.

That said, I’d be more inclined to use it if the base heal were increased by 50% and the heal % were increased to 30%. But even then, I don’t know.

Focus for the blocks and condition removal. Especially the condition removal.

Reducing RF’s cooldown to 72s, adding a 2k heal, and and grant Fury. Hrmm.

Well, it’d help in sPvP for sure, and given our crippling weakness to the (progressively stronger each patch, it seems) condi/toughness, MM, and petting zoo ranger meta, I can’t really say I’d object to it.

I never see Akamon ever. I always look…

Also #paintrainlyf4ever

It’s unlikely that a non-80 is a Legend in WvW. Probably zerker/broken with some vuln stacks, or something. It’s no secret that almost everyone on Maguuma runs super glassy (especially their ranged players).

What? No. And the Toughness sigil is pointless too. If you need more sustain on a WvW Guardian and decide to look to a stacking sigil to provide it, run Life. The scaling on Selfless Daring + the residual effects on other healing sources (regen, #6 skill) make +250 Healing Power worth a lot more to us than 250 Toughness when it comes to sustain.

A full signet bar on a Guardian is a free kill because you have no sustained healing, protection, or anything. The only signets anyone should realistically consider running are Judgment and Mercy, and only one at a time, and preferably Judgment. Mercy’s for emergency lord “banners” and very select support builds for competitive play.

I just… I can’t really explain why it’s a bad idea to even consider because I feel like it’s so obvious. Any way you spin it, you will have less damage and/or (probably both) far less sustain than a shout or meditation build. At best, I could see this rune set offering some kind of extra utility to a HTL/SYG/Signet of Judgment setup. Maybe.

I tend to run GS and S/F but will swap into Staff for a quick Empower (+ Virtue of Justice w/ 5 in Virtues) before any encounter and then back into GS for the free +DPS.

inb4 Retal bunker.