Guild Wars 2

[Damage]
Warrior’s burst damage is unmatched, Hundred Blades + Whirlwind Attack are awesome if you like seeing big numbers.

Guardian’s base attacks are stronger by comparison, the Greatsword’s auto-attack hits pretty hard but the skills aren’t as strong as the Warrior’s.

So Guardians have a decent sustained DpS, Warriors have a more bursty DpS. Untraited.
Properly traited, Warriors get a huge boost to overall DpS so even their sustained DpS will be on par with a Guardian’s and they still get to keep more burst.

[Control]
Most Guardian’s control skills come from weapon skills instead of the Warrior’s utility skills (mostly).
This means less damage for the Guardian but more control, and more damage for the Warrior but less control.

[Support]
Both grant decent support, though a Guardian is a more defensive support while the Warrior’s more offensive. Pretty obvious eh.
They can support defensively/offensively as well, but they’re not as good as the other.

[Healing]
Guardians have plenty of small heals that helps keeping you up for a long time, the longer the fight, the better for the Guardian.
Warriors have less of these small heals but they can option to burst heal with traits/utilities. The longer the fight, the worse for the Warrior as he doesn’t have many good options of sustaining his health for too long.

[Ranged]
Guardians sucks. Pretty bad. It is manageable for PvE, but is inviable for PvP (especially WvW). Guardians are heavy melee powerhouses, but anything that goes mid-range makes your power decreases by a tenth.
This means you’re prone to kiting as a Guardian, but this is where player skill comes in.

Warriors doesn’t have it great either, but their ranged options are decent. Weaker than a Ranger/Elementalist or other heavy ranged profession of course, but they do well for what they have.
Heavy single hits or AoEs and pretty long ranges with Rifles/Longbows (traited).

[Utilities]
Guardians have awesome defensive utilities, the best by far being Wall of Reflection. For 10 seconds every 40 seconds, you create a Wall that reflects any projectile that hits it. Traited, it’s 12 seconds every 32 seconds.
This is awesome in WvW and works great when fighting ranged professions as well, as they can’t damage you with anything other than ground-targetted (which you’re supposed to avoid).
I feel kinda bad about this because it feels this skill alone makes up for all the disadvantages the profession has… but it still is awesome.
Guardians can grant Stability consistently for a group, this is a boon that negates stuns and other forms of controls. This is huge in PvP.

Warriors don’t have anything as flashy as these Guardians’ skills, but their attributes/offensive utilities makes up for it in my opinion.
They can also get Stability, but with a longer CD and only for themselves (but longer duration per CD if traited).
They can walk around with nearly permanent Swiftness and Fury, and they’ll always have at least 3 stacks of Might at all times. It’s not uncommon to see a properly traited Warrior stacking up 20~ stacks of Might by himself (dunno if this was fixed).

[Conclusion]
If you want a more defensive profession, with less damage (but still decent damage), heavy melee, weak ranged, low health but with tons of healing, crappy mobility, good group support and Wall of Reflection (this skill is awesome have I told you this?), pick the Guardian. You’re literally a walking mini-fortress.

If you want a more offensive profession with stupidly overpowered burst and attributes, walking around with every offensive boon possible, tons of health but little healing, decent ranged and decent mobility, good to great group support (as it’s all about damage), pick the Warrior. You’re a Juggernaut that can take down someone else (or groups) in seconds if they’re careless.

Zealous Blade is sorta good if you’ve went 30 in Zeal already, as it will proc for any hit you deal while wielding a Greatsword.
This means all hits of a Symbol of Wrath will proc the heal. As well as all hits from a Whirling Wrath.

For example, hitting 5 monsters with a Symbol of Wrath (hits 5 times) and a Whirling Wrath (assuming 9 hits) would heal you for 1750. It’s a pretty decent value.

But I don’t know since when, they nerfed the Zeal’s Grandmaster minor (one of the ninja nerfs) to increase Symbol damage just by 10%.
It was something close to 25% (27% according to wiki) which made my Symbols hit for close to 1k each on a full Power build. Now they’re about 600~800 so I think the Zeal value line is even weaker than before…

The trait works fine in the Mists, it’s just in PvE that the green circle doesn’t update.

I think it’s a bug, but like many others I don’t hope to see it fixed anytime soon… (I mean, it took them 6 months to fix a 50 Healing Power instead of Power in the Rune of Pack set, imagine if it’s something a bit more complex)

Against insanely overpowered Warriors, anyone got any tips?

I usually don’t have trouble with them as I can avoid and outlast their damage, but today I got one in various 1v1s and he immobilized me every 5~10 seconds or so.
I got only one Lightning Flash and one Mist Form… I lost pretty much all health in the third Hundred Blades + Whirlwind Attack.

He had tons of health/armor too as he didn’t go down from two RTL -> Updraft -> Burning Speed -> Ring of Fire and a couple autoattacks and one Churning Earth.

Also, I’m having some trouble with all ranged engineers and thieves, even though I’m using Soldier Amulet + Berserk Gem, their ranged damage is way over the top… like that Thief’s dual pistol barrage, even when I dodge the few ones that hit takes like 10~20% of my health… any tips for dealing with heavy ranged damage?

I’m cycling my 3rd utility as I don’t know what to use… I’m using Mist Form, Lightning Flash, and for my 3rd I used to have Frost Bow when I happened across a zerg x zerg, but I didn’t got to use it that much so I’m discarding it for something else.

Also, build is 20/20/0/20/10 with Fire, Air and Water Alacrity Traits, Fire Damage, Zephyr’s Boon, Quicker Cantrips, and Renewing Stamina.
(I don’t like playing bunker so I’m going with a more offensive build)

Any tips are welcomed!

It was a bug, you could skip stuff and loot while in combat…

These chests are supposed to be “Fight this monster(s) and loot the chest”.

Ritt.3069:

This may have been obvious, but hope it helps.

Nope, it was really helpful, thanks!

I don’t have much experience with PvP and I haven’t played any stealth profession so I’m usually at a loss when they disappear. I know they can take damage while stealthed, but I keep thinking “They must be far already”.

emikochan.8504:

If they keep running away, haven’t you already won? They aren’t on the point :P

The fight with the thief happened with him attacking the point, and I didn’t knew what to do as I watched my health going down steadily…
I tried to stay inside the point the most I could, but I was kinda afraid of getting backstabbed… I got one~two shotted way too many times in WvW already.

Hmm I play both a Guardian and Elementalist and I can’t decide between one if I had to…

Elementalists are awesome at 80, and really strong for PvP and WvW.
Guardians are coolish and solid strong, but I find them weak for 1v1 (either I die or they run from me) and WvW (only support, not a really good ranged profession).

That’s a typo I guess. And he’s basically telling you “Sorry I can’t do anything about it. Complain at the forums and hope a DEV pay a visit to your topic and fix/clarify things for you. But they’re really busy so you might be out of luck. Have a good day.”

And that’s what you did!

Now you pray.

[Thieves]

Today I fought a Pistol/Dagger thief that did nothing but run far from me, shoot once/twice, and disappear. Sometimes with Shadow + Leap, Cloak and Dagger (these I could’ve avoided, but by then he had done it twice already) or some other stealth form.

I can’t shoot PbAoE blindly hoping it’ll hit him right? Anywhere in the 360 radius he could’ve moved to…

The only times I could get some damage in was when I RTL → Updraft → Burning Speed → Ring of Fire, but then he’d disappear and be back with nearly full health by the time he reappeared.

How do I win against this?

[Mesmers]

I don’t get much about Mesmers (trying to) but sometimes I fight ones that simply… disappear every second. I don’t know how (couldn’t understand from the skills either) but even if I do destroy all illusions they pop as fast as they go down, and it seems the Mesmer is always fine because his health isn’t going down.

How to win against this?

Any other tips against some hard/annoying profession builds are welcomed too. Thanks!

The great thing about having Elusive Power for a DpS build is because you get more health, regen, Empowering Might and some defensive trait while still increasing damage.

You have to dodge, but there’s no encounter you can just stay still and DpS away until the boss is dead. You’d be dead if you attempt this. Using dodges when really needed increases your damage.
When you don’t need to dodge and you know you can spare a dodge, you can always dodge while moving towards the boss or right after the last hit of a combo trying to minimize the time lost.

Using a 20/25/0/25/0 has comparable damage to 20/25/25/0/0 (mostly because of Empowering Might), and you still get group support and extra survivability.

Lexandro.1456:

Sounds about right to me. Its a Champion, its supposed to be hard. 5 or more players is generally what they require in Orr.

And as said above; As a ranger I have no specific problems vs Risen Nobles. As a warrior they are simply annoying since they teleport, but other than that nothing stands out about them in difficulty.

Can’t see an issue im afraid.

What was interesting before is that nearly all champions were soloable.
They were hard, but if you could come up with tactics and strategy, they were doable.

Usually took lots of movement, terrain positioning, skills rotations, and a bunch of stuff.
Champion Risen Nobles now are just “I’m a NPC, I hit harder and I don’t die so bring 20 friends or I’ll kill you”.

But anyway, Risen Nobles’ damage is way over the top. Even as a Guardian, I could manage easily fighting 4 Risens of any kind at once. In fact, I even pulled as many as I could just because I knew I could tank.
Now, I fought 3 Risen Nobles and 1 Acolyte, and my health hanged in the 5~10% for some time (I didn’t heal though, but I never had to heal before).

And I can still deal fine fighting 4+ of any other kind of Risen.
Just Risen Nobles that are a pain.

This is even more true when I’m playing my Elementalist. Standing still and just spamming skills I kill any Risen 1v1 losing about 25~33% health.
The same against Risen Nobles (but avoiding the overpowered teleport-Symbol) takes 50~66% health to kill just one.

Pulling two at once on my Ele means I either run away or pop all skills, utilities, elite, call for help on map chat, kill one and then wait for a ress.

And both my characters are exotic geared.

Raine.1394:

I haven’t encountered one since they made Orr more “interesting” but I bet they’re fun now. /sarcasm

Hmm they’re more interesting yes, they’re pretty much like Thieves in PvP.

You avoid 1v1 or 1v2+ at all costs.

Do you think Risen Nobles should be marked as Group Events?

My opinion is yes.
They have a Warrior’s health, dealing Thieves’ damage, can backstab for 4~5k without stealth at 3000ish Armor, they teleport to you every 6 seconds, they have a dual attack for 1k each on par with Risen Eagles stupidly insane damage (but Eagles have low health/armor), while they AoE plague you and move faster or equal than you with Swiftness.

When I accidentally pull two Nobles in any place of Orr, I may as well drop the keyboard and just die.

Fighting a Veteran Risen Noble is harder than killing a Champion solo, and I can solo most Champions in the game with my Guardian.
Fighting a Champion Risen Noble is impossible to any group with less than 5.

Edit: Why are these kitteners still not fixed?
This is from an event to defend Wren Encampment. After a bunch of Putrifiers, Corrupters, Acolytes, they throw us 20+ Nobles.
Look what happens to all the NPCs and players (there were about 10 players at the local – ALL ALIVE).

Don’t you guys play your kittening own game?

Aww yeah, Rune of the Pack finally fixed!

Averages of 1250~1500 on Strikes, 1700~1900 on Wrathful Strike, 2500~3000 crits on various Risen stuff.

Same too, for everything.

Using Orichalcum Tools (I’m blaming the vendor).

I think… it works like this:

When you buy gems with real money, they’re created of thin air.
So now the game has 1000 gems.

This player then puts the 1000 gems in the currency exchange (currently with 0 gems) and he gets 1000 gold for it (this is a price ANet must’ve decided on before hand, and they created this gold of thin air).

Now the currency exchange has 1000 gems, and each one costs 1g. No one is buying. Prices remain the same.

Another player do the same as above, and now the currency exchange has 2000 gems. Each one costs 50s now.
As players buy more gems with gold, and gems gets depleted, their price increases closer to the original price of 1 gem = 1 gold. As players put more gems for selling, their price decreases.

The values are just assumptions but I think you get the idea… so they could rip if they wanted by adding/taking gems out since no one but them have access, but let’s believe they’re not doing this.

This would be the same as trying to check if some product’s from real life is priced correctly with taxes included just to make sure you’re not getting ripped off. No one does this and we all believe prices are just.

Arimahn.3568:

DAoC managed huge fights without culling, so I’m at a loss why the data transfer should be so much worse in GW2.

I never played DAoC but I think it doesn’t have the same combat system as GW2, so that’s probably why.

Since movement/positioning is really important in GW2’s combat to actually see if you hit or miss, this information must be sent for everyone in the area for accuracy.

Take WoW for example, as soon as you press Skill, it goes out and it’s pretty much a hit (the server will calculate the hit/miss according to stats and that’s it).
It doesn’t matter where you are or the opponent, because the skill will only go off if you’re in range anyway.

So positioning in WoW doesn’t take much importance and that can lag since it won’t affect combat this much. You can also notice this by playing with someone else, and as you move together with or without a zerg, you can check by asking “Where are you right now?” or “Who’s leading?”. You’ll always get different responses than what you’re seeing because of lag.

For GW2 though, massive battles means sending positioning information every millisecond about every player in combat to every player.
That’s a bunch load more info than just “Player A has cast skill. Hit! Dealt 100 damage, send 100 damage info to Players”.

It now takes 4 more seconds for me to reach where I was supposed to be 4 seconds ago.

This means that every minute I spend playing I lose 20 extra seconds because of the nerf.
Since I’ve played for about 1000 hours already, if this was after the nerf I’d had to play 1333 hours to arrive where I am currently.

That’s a 33% nerf of my real life time.

Game breaking.

@Alarox
I’ll assume your math is correct, I don’t want to bother checking.

Alarox.4590:

So basically, they deal about the same damage overall minus a few scenarios. Here’s why the Hammer wins in PvE though: it has more functions outside of damage, while the Greatsword has only damage. Yes the GS has gap closing, but that’s not needed in PvE (it is in PvP though). The Hammer brings support and defensive control to the table while dealing out a similar amount of damage (only because the auto-attack won’t be avoided though).

Prove me wrong.

A few things you might’ve forgotten:
1. Greatsword provides Might, up to Might x3 on it’s last attack
2. Greatsword has Greatsword Power from Zeal 20, which is an extra 5% damage
3. Symbol of Wrath has Retaliation, which deals 250~400 damage for any damage you take, which is wonder against a bunch of weak mobs.
4. You didn’t take into account Symbol of Wrath damage
5. Whirling Wrath against big monsters can deal insane damage (7~10k to 15~25k from experience, though I think these could be a bug) if you walk inside it’s hit box. Mighty Blow can’t even compare.

As for controls, Hammer is great for single target control, but Ring of Warding usually sucks for most cases (if you could cast walking it could be more useful for trapping mobs inside/outside). So we’re talking only about Immobilize and Blowout.
Greatsword has Pull, but also a 600ish DoT x10 that you can use for even more damage if you won’t use Pull.

Hammer is better for combos in my opinion because Blasts grant party-wide boons, while Jump only grants the boon to the player.

So, in my opinion the Hammer isn’t better at all.
They’re pretty much equivalent, but I’d give Greatsword the slight advantage because it can deal much more damage.

Both.

Check GW2BuildCraft and you can see how much damage reduction you’ll have.

It’s good to have something between at least 15~35% so you don’t get massive damage from everything. Imagine getting Backstabbed for 7k. That’s not fun, and you’ll also be giving the Thief tears of joy.

DeathPanel.8362:

This is mostly my pve setup. I stay out of 1v1 combat in wvw anyway and usually travel with the zerg.

If it’s for PvE, full Berserk works fine, and you can mix in some Knight or Soldier gear if you’re not confident about dodging or if your build lacks heals to keep up you through your encounters.

These mixed gear will also works great for WvW, even if you’re always with the zerg, being full Berserk means you’ll be spending more time outside the battle zone than in, since you’ll be getting hit by some nasty AoE…
(think 3~4k Meteor Showers crits, 700ish damage Arrow Cart Rains, etc)

With some defense you should be able to save yourself from any “surprise” hits like these…

For example, I got a full Berserk set for my Elementalist just for WvW and I regretted it. I thought it’d be a good idea having 50%+ critical chance at 100% critical damage, but 13k health and 2000ish armor feels like I’m being attacked by 20 everytime one Ranger or Elementalist auto-attacks me…

You can play with whatever build suits your playstyle.

1. Personally I don’t expect anything (when I’m not playing my Elementalist). But if I were to say what I’d prefer… what I like most about groups are three things: Fury, Might and Heals.
So you can play the Water 30 Air 10 for Zephyr’s (kinda nerfed though), or you can play a S/D for insane Might boons, etc…
As long as you don’t die for stupid stuff and provide help to your group with damage, heals and ressurrects, I think you’re fine (most groups don’t care about min-maxing).

2. Can’t say as I’m inexperienced, but I’d say highly viable… I see more Warriors, Guardians and Thieves complaining that they must play ranged for high fractals in fear of getting one shotted or because the damage is too high, and being far you can see the animations/large attacks coming better.

3. D/D is very viable (and fun). The damage seems a bit lackluster in my opinion, but you play sorta like a melee. It’s kinda bad to go in full Berserk Gear since you won’t have the Defense or the Healing Power to keep you up, but it’s a very solid with decent stats.
For dungeons though I’d go S/D for boons, burst, and Staff for pretty much everything.

4. My opinion is to avoid the all-stat gear.
Depending on your weapon, you’ll want to focus on some specific stats and try to get the best of it.
For example, with D/D I use Power/Toughness/Vitality gear (sometimes I mix with Berserk depending on what I’m doing) so I don’t get one shotted since I’m pretty close to mobs.
When I’m playing Staff or S/D, Berserk all the way if I’m pretty familiar with the content, or I mix some PVT pieces to get a decent health/defense depending on the content.

However since Elementalists are versatile by nature, these all-stats could be good if you don’t mind having some “all-around” stats.
Condition Damage is good when playing D/D or S/D for example, but kinda sucks for Staff imo. Healing Power and Toughness is great but it’s even more required when playing D/D than anything else. Precision is good but I don’t focus too much on it when I’m playing D/D since I get near permanent Fury, so I trade some of the critical chance for survival stats for example.

If you’re not sure where to start though, I recommend playing Staff and S/D with Berserk, Knight and Soldier gear.
Then you can work your way gearing more towards offense/defense depending on what playstyle you enjoy more, and then get your ascended stuff accordingly.

Great, for one of the maps that I get lag is now EBG in WvW…

Game becomes unplayable if I enter combat with 20+.

This can be fixed by giving access to those Ascended gear via other means, such as World Drops (and not soulbound), Crafting, some specific-hard to accomplish achievements, etc…

Currently since it’s the only way to obtain it feels hard, but I hope they add more ways to obtain them like they stated before so you don’t feel pressured to do the daily every single day.

The dev’s balance team got their thieves’ !@# kicked by some pretty nasty Elementalists this month.

This is all our fault if you think about it, if whoever did this hadn’t made the dev felt so miserable, maybe we wouldn’t get nerfed this badly.

Anyway it’s a tip for the next time we see an dev as enemy, lay down your mouses and stand back from your keyboards until they can kill us.

Meanwhile the team who balances the game continues rocking with their perma-stealth or almost perma-stealth thieves…

If you’re talking about DpS, Berserk wins by far obviously.

If it’s about 1v1, Berserk is one if not the worst setup possible. You can kill other Berserk or undergeared/underleveled players, but equal players (with average skill) with any decent defense will outlast you easily.

I think it’s a good idea to have a gear for challenging content that you might get hit often and you need some health/defense, and a full berserk when you’re used to it and want to rush through it.

After a patch, I noticed I was having a pretty bad lag (but not to the unplayable level, just really inconvenient) in just one map, maybe two.

According to this post, they know what is.
But since this last patch, I’ve been to 4, 5 maps, and I only didn’t lag in Cursed Shore.

It seems fine at first but during combat, when there’s like 2~3 at once I get massive lag spikes to the unplayable level (the ones where you keep spamming a key and praying “I hope I don’t die I hope don’t die I hope I don’t die…”).

Anyone else is getting hit pretty bad by this or did I just hit the lucky pot?

This is an inconvenience… I’ve bought an invisible bag just to have my equips safe and other stuff, but now they’re going all over the place instead of staying in the invisible bag when I equip them =(

Amins.3710:

Because if you didn’t have AH or MF, you would have to spec Staff 0/0/0/30/30 and in full clerics, just to stay alive in.

And before you say “that’s not true”. Please post a Video of WvW where you do not have 30 in Valor and are able to go “Balls Deep” into a zerg w/ a Ele & Guard by your side.

You can’t.

You can jump in, but then you’d have to retreat out. You would not be able to stay inside and fight to break thier lines for any duration of time.

You’re not being partial here because there’s a bunch of differences and variables of “go Balls Deep into a zerg” that you can’t quantify.

I Judge’s Intervention my way pretty often alone against 15~20+ and of course I do have to retreat my way out, if I could down all of them I would be banned for being too OP.
I can manage fine for quite some time depending on how focused I am.

For example, as a note, I’ve fought a Warrior that, with me being at 2900 Defense and 20k Health, I’d go down in a single Hundred Blades + Whirlwind Attack.
He’d pop Haste and probably a bunch of stuff too (I was always either Immobilized or Knocked down).
Another example is a Thief’s burst, though I can’t say how many of them were glass cannons, but their usual burst takes about 50% of my Health (Cloak and Dagger, Mug, Backstab).

And this is with a non-AH build, with 10 in Valor. I seriously doubt that simply by having AH would make me withstand that Warrior’s burst or would make fighting two thieves any easier.

In a zerg x zerg fight, all that it takes is a few bursts like this and AH or non-AH, you’re down.

So fighting under-average and under-geared players and staying alive for 5 min isn’t a proper argument of “AH is awesome”.
Or I could also say “30 in Zeal is awesome! I Judge’d in with Binding Blades, and with a single pull and Whirling Wrath I got 5 guys downed!”.
This happens quite often, but I also notice the times it doesn’t is because the enemy is smart/better players than the usual.

Ynna.8769:

Is a hammer useless because it’s not a screwdriver? Is a Holy Priest useless because most people play Shadow? Is a Pyro superior because it’s easier to be successful with? Is an M16 better than an RPG in Metal Gear Solid 4?

No, because they all serve different purposes.

Now, if we’re talking about DpS, a Shadow Priest is obviously better than a Holy Priest.

If we’re talking about “which weapon sets blocks projectiles the best?” then we can discuss how Sword & Shield are infinitely superior than Greatsword.
Otherwise for damage, AoE, control and combos, Greatsword is unmatched.

And like they said, it’s not that the Greatsword is OP, it’s the other weapons that aren’t on par.
Personally I’d love to see the Sword & Shield getting some love because I enjoy the looks and the "knight"ish stereotype… too bad it’s not practical.

It should have the exact same damage potential, though with less control and combos but projectile protection instead, and I’d be fine retiring my Greatsword…

If I recall correctly, that’s where you have a story mission if you choose the Whispers choice of action… maybe the model is loading incorrectly even outside the story mission, but I think for novelty show we can call that “Orr Ghost Ship”.

2 skilled players fighting each other in 1v1 the D/D would have an advantage of course.

Staff is awesome because it has many ground-targeted AoEs and everything is AoE by definition.
D/D is better for 1v1s because it has plenty of mobility (you play it as if you were melee) so a Staff Elementalist would have a hard time getting a Lava Font/Meteor Shower/Eruption/Ice Shard/etc on them.

D/D has a bunch of Point Blank AoEs, which makes them work wonders against other melees and they have a slight advantage of playing at 600 range compared to the 130~150 usual melee range.

Staff has very decent escapes as well, but the damage against a high mobility opponent is lacking (try fighting a Thief with a Staff – aside from autoattacks and instants, I doubt you’ll hit him with anything else).

But like people said, different playstyles.
If you’re fighting a group x group for example, being at 1200 range with tons of AoE and controls works awesome too.

I used to be a Staff user 100% of the time, after losing some pretty annoying 1v1s or 1v3~ in WvW, I got myself a Scepter and Daggers just to walk around and sometimes even defend with it.
Now, I roll and laugh against most professions played by average players… but I still couldn’t get to fight a great Thief or Mesmer with my Elementalist though.

I started a Mesmer recently and I’ve been playing around the Mists to get the feeling of how the profession works and such, but I feel the profession works in an unorthodox way and I’m looking for general tips and/or stuff that every Mesmer should know or something along these lines.

I started by making a build of 20/20/0/20/10 with everything buffing Phantasms and Greatsword/Sword that I could get.
Though I’m currently using GS/Staff because I found it easy to pop a bunch of illusions with the Staff…

The damage seems… weird to come by except for the Phantasmal Berserker, and even then it is pretty random. I still can’t figure when to use the shatters except Mind Wrack that I use regularly for damage, but it also seems lacking and I have a hard time getting all phantasms up after it.
Multi-target is a nightmare for me, I don’t know where my illusions are or where they’ll go if I shatter them.

So, any tips for a Mesmer newbie?

Gaudrath.6725:

Try soloing veterans five levels above your own with a greatsword, or certain champs on your own level with it.
Sword/focus or sword/shield are much better in many situations, especially when you are fighting a single, tough opponent.

Personally, I utilize the hidden skill called “weapon switch” and use BOTH the greatsword and a secondary weapon set. It is said that greatsword/sword/torch can really light things up!

But I already do.
The only better weapon for soloing hard single monsters is the Sword because of it’s slightly extended range.

For everything else, Greatsword is simply better.

Soloing group events? They throw you 20 monsters thinking you’re in a group?
Worry not, Symbol of Wrath + Whirling Wrath and Retaliation damage takes care of about everything if you got a good defense not to get instant-downed.

Ranged Monsters attacking you from all directions, and they’re scattered?
Binding Blade and AoE above and you’re done.

Monster is running from you, or is going to hit you with something really hard and you don’t have dodge/block?
Leap of Faith.

And although the tooltip says otherwise, compare the Zealot’s Defense damage to Whirling Wrath.
9.9 out of 10 you can deal more damage with Whirling Wrath (single target). Even more if you know what you’re doing.

And why would I need to use a one-handed/off-handed secondary weapon? Why don’t I just use the Hammer that is similar to the Greatsword for even more damage?

Or a Staff if I want to be able to heal/support my group?

Surely you wouldn’t say that a:
1. 10 second Blind with 200 damage and a 15 second 3000ish damage with 3 sec of Ranged blocks + Protection every 24/30 secs with 700ish damage and a 32/40 second pushback with 1300ish heal

…is better than:
2. Protection Symbol for 3000ish damage, 4/5 second 1800ish AoE damage, 12/15 sec Immobilize with 700ish damage, 20/25 sec blowout with 900ish damage and a 32/40 sec Ward

…right?

Takes a no brain for this, if Sword/Shield (or any other offhand) was better or actually even on par with Greatsword/Hammer, you’d see more of them around.
But they aren’t, and with their very specific role they’re not worth as weapons for “general purpose” that you use to play 99% of the game.

Ynna.8769:

Also, you have to keep in mind that weapons in Guild Wars 2 correspond to a playstyle, and the Greatsword offers a popular playstyle. This doesn’t mean the Greatsword is a better weapon than all other weapons, just that what it offers is more popular.

No, this means exactly that the Greatsword is better than other weapons.

If you give masses of people 10 choices of something, and they’re going to use these something for an activity, after some time you’ll notice which something is the better choice for the given activity.

Well, that’s expected afterall, Greatswords deal great damage, AoE, boons, blinds, controls, wide swings, that’s plenty of advantages over other weapons (arguably the Hammer is close to it).

It’s like asking “You have to kill monsters. What do you prefer, killing 1 monster every 15 seconds, or killing 5 monsters every 10 seconds?”

I picked the latter one and I’ve been using the Greatsword since launch… even though I’m sorta tired of it already.

AH is for those who enjoy getting hit alot (PvE) or those who play GW2 like the regular MMO combat rules.
AH is for those who want a “safe net” in case of failing skill-wise against someone (WvW, PvP), or is just for those who play bunker styles.

A full Power/Precision Player has very low odds of killing a full Toughness/Vitality Player, simply because the offensive stats aren’t on par with the defensive ones.
Which is a good thing, because you don’t get those bursty one-shot PvP like you do in other games, but this also means it’s better to run a more defensive oriented playstyle than offensive.

That’s why people say “AH is a must”.

What I dislike about AH is that most people who build for it are just following some forum post without putting a thought about it and end up with crappy bunkers, low damage, and terrible skills (since they can neglect dodging or evading).

So I just dropped 96 Rare Greatswords which should be about… 30g~35g?

Got 5 Exotics worth squats (2~3g).

Mystic Toilet is still a Toilet.

This thread gave the me courage to gamble all my T5 materials.

I don’t want a legendary but I’d take the gold if I get one.

Mystic Toilet, here I go!

(Watch me come here 30 min later filled with regret)

You lift it above your head level, grasp firmly, and then push it down the fastest you can for massive damage.

Due to the hammer’s weight, this move isn’t appropriate for always use since you’d run out of stamina pretty quick, so you can also do the same movement pattern sideways.
It’s not as strong as a vertical swing, but it’s not as hard on the muscles so you can use it more often.

For performance, always swing it horizontally, you don’t apply much strength to it but the hammer’s weight will be the most principal factor when calculating damage.

Way too much Critical Damage for a not so high Critical Chance and low Power, though you do have more than the average I’ve seen in these forums.

You’d deal more damage with less Critical Damage and more Power, so you wouldn’t depend entirely on crits to deal decent damage.

Other than that, Armor’s fine maybe just a little over, and decent Health to survive a burst.

I don’t think any point in Virtue is worth it.

Sure, they do give unique benefits such as Boon Duration and Virtue Recharge that you can’t easily get in gear/boons, but I’m one that likes min-maxing my attributes to the best of it.
I’d spend, if I really had to to, only 5~10 points because the Minor is decent with Justice Renewed and for Master of Consecrations because well, consecrations are awesome for WvW (mainly Wall of Reflection).

But since I can live with a 40 sec CD and 10 sec duration Wall of Reflection, I don’t spend points in it.
Same goes for Runes, Boon Duration is awesome with Save Yourselves, but other than this I don’t think it’s really that great. It’s something that you need a high amount to make it worthwhile (about 50%) or you’ll barely notice it’s effects (imagine a 5.5 or 6 sec Empowering Might, up from 5 with 10/20%).

This is a case of Utility x Attributes I think, and it’s up to you if you’d drop utility in favor of attributes…

The LOOKS.

The POWER!

So you see a rotten fruit in a tree, and asks for changes in the tree so it’s fruits don’t rot anymore?

I think it’s much easier to just trash away the rotten fruits.

Also, there’s plenty of good fruits around, why are you worrying about the rotten ones?

I run Soldier’s entirely with some Precision from a bunch of pieces (gems, runes, traits) so I can get a 45% Crit Chance with Fury.

It feels nice to see those @#$% thieves Basilisking and Signeting and Hasting and stabbing stabbing and my health is still close to 50%. By then I’d love to see the looks of the player when he realizes he’s giving me a free bag since they probably just have Shadow Refuge to try to escape and even that won’t work…

This was always one of my greatest joys in playing WvW on my Guardian except that they could always outrun me. On my Ele, the joy continues until I corner them out of utilities and heals and they got nothing else to do except think “Where did I go wrong?”.

Then I down them but I don’t stomp. I watch them throwing those endless knives dealing crappy damage, I hit them a few times, healing me passively (not with the Healing skill or that would give them the thought they could’ve won).
Then they notice my health isn’t even moving and they attempt to heal themselves… that’s when I hit them a couple more times. Some stop fighting by this point, and just wait for their death, but this is no fun… it’s fun when they still think they have a chance.

I start the stomp, but I stop the cast at half bar. Some will Shadowstep and I will just attack them a couple more times. I start stomping again until 50% bar, then they’ll stealth.
After this they’re out of options and I just autoattack, slowly, until they’re nothing but a dead meat soiling the WvW grounds. I also stand there after their death, still, in combat position, as if I’m saying “yeah I’m a noob and I don’t know what to do next, and you got killed by me”.

Then I grab my bag and go to sleep.

You say support, but besides the Hold the Line Shout, you bring nothing unique and/or new to compensate for your lack of damage.

In a dungeon, 5 players are expected to deal damage. If one is being “carried”, I expect his support to be so awesome that actually compensates the group to kill a monster faster than if he weren’t support.

You’re also bringing Empower, Symbol of Swiftness, Symbol of Protection and heals from Empower/Orb of Light, and the occasional Blind via VoJ and boons through Inspired Virtues.
With this alone, my Guardian who is damage oriented can also bring all of this and a bit more and do a better job at dealing damage.

If you’re planning on going heavy on support, then focus on support, not self-protection and survivability. In the end, you’re looking to be a heavy bunker who does nothing but taking hits.

If you really want more support, there’s plenty of traits you can pick while still increasing your overall damage and survivability:
- Zeal’s Symbolic Exposure if you’re focusing on Symbol weapons.
- Honor’s Battle Presence, Empowering Might, Writ of the Merciful, and you get more damage via Elusive Endurance and Health.
- Virtue’s Master of Consecrations (they’re excellent for groups)
- Radiance’s Renewed Justice along with Virtue’s Inspired Virtue for a Might boon spam against tons of weak monsters.
- Zeal’s Spirit Weapons’ traits if you use the Shield, Bow or Hammer. Some of them makes some encounters incredibly easy.

Radiance and Valor lines are self-centered, meaning there’s little support coming from these two. The exception being Radiance’s minors paired with Inspired Virtues.
All the other lines provide better support.

And avoid Virtue’s Vengeful if you’re not going to make a retaliation build for yourself. Even if you plan on granting Retaliation to the group, not every one takes hits for granted and will gladly eat a 3~5k damage from a boss just to deal a 300ish damage back.
This is helpful if you’re doing this for WvW turtles, but since you don’t mention it in your post I doubt it’s for this reason.

From what I see, you’re lacking damage and support with these choices compared with other Guardian builds.
If you’re not a Might spammer with Empowering Might and Renewed Justice + Inspired Virtues, or a healing bot with a bunch of heals like Battle Presence and Writ of the Merciful and Mace’s Symbol of Faith, nor grants group’s cleansing with Purging Grounds, nor projectile protection with Shield of Absorption, Shield of the Avenger, Wall of Reflection or Sanctuary, nor a Shout based build, nor a Extended Boon Hammer Protection for high protection uptime, I’d expect you to deal some freaking insane damage!

You can also do decent damage with any of the aboves (might’ve missed some builds), but doing none of these and not dealing damage is really lacking.
That’s akin to those Signet Warriors who provide no support but deal insane damage, except you’ve made a “I can take hits” Guardian (which doesn’t help killing monsters).

You’d need about 200% Condition Duration for the passive effect of VoJ to be permanently up.

Khenzy.9348:

Orb of Wrath proyectile speed increased.
Orb of Wrath is now considered a Combo Finisher: Physical Proyectile (20%).

__

Smite is now considered a Combo Field: Light.

or

Smite is now called Symbol of Smite and functions like other symbols. Place a mystic symbol into the target area that damages foes and gives Might to you and your allies.

__

Chains of Light CD reduced to 15 seconds.

or

The Scepter Power trait, in addition to its current effect, now also reduces Scepter skill recharges by 20%.

Unconceivable!

This would make the scepter rather useful, so it’s clearly rejected.
This thread clearly shows that no one here has no idea about the viability of the scepter, but I admit it’s lacking in it’s current form. So I propose:

Orb of Wrath: Animation changed to a spinning and floating icecream that, upon contact, makes the target’s vision blurry and sweet. And heals the target by 10. Renamed to Cream of Wrath. (Only usable against enemies)

Smite: Animation changed from closed fists to open fists. If hits the same target more than 10 times (at a 1% chance of actually happening), the target’s cheeks will inflate and turn red. If the target’s defense is any higher than 1837, it deals 1 damage per hit and the target will randomly say “That tickles!”. If the target’s defense is lower than that, deals 1500 damage over 15 hits.

Chains of Light: Distance reduced to 600 for balancing purposes and the immobilize duration is half duration against players. Since it was also deemed OP against players facing the Guardian, there’s a 100% chance of the Guardian also being immobilized for the full duration of the skill (like the Risen Putrifier) if it hits.

If these changes were to happen, I know for sure I would pack a Scepter on my 2nd weapon set probably forever. It would have so many uses that it would be a waste not to use one.

If you don’t have exotic armor yet, run AC since it’s sorta easy so you can get a Power/Toughness/Vitality armor, or if you can spend some gold craft Valkyrie/Knight exotic pieces to help.

Nearly everything in the game is dodgeable (not by just using dodge) so if you’re failing at this, not even all the best gear would help you in hard content. Armor is there to help you in case you fail once or twice, but it won’t help if you can’t avoid damage at all.

If you’re having trouble avoiding damage, start with the Scepter/Staff since they’re ranged. Watch how monsters move, how they attack, what motions they do before, what patterns they follow, and as you gain knowledge you’ll notice they’re predictable.

Then move for melee weapons, but don’t start with dungeon monsters right away. Walk around the world and you’ll see a bunch of the same type of monsters in group events that you can attempt to solo.
Give them a try, and learn. Don’t feel bad about failing and dying, it’s part of the process. If you put some effort and learn, you’ll notice you can actually solo most of the game’s content, even these said group events.

You’ll end up developing your own techniques and habits, such as memorizing the a monster’s attack speed after the 2nd attack, and dodging the 3rd even if it’s a fast attacking monster.
Or you’ll learn you can dodge monsters attacks with a startup animation between 0.5~1sec just by walking through them (with Melee Assist Off in options) or just by walking in circles.
Or how your attack range is usually higher than most monsters and you can keep running and attacking while it’s chasing you.
Or the best ways to use your skills for maximum survivability, such as Binding Blade, dodge (negate 1st hit), Leap of Faith (blind – negate 2nd hit), Pull (negate 3rd hit), VoJ if you have Radiance 5 (negate 4th hit), dodge (negate 5th hit), run for 1 attack so by then you’ll have a dodge and Leap of Faith again, etc…

If you don’t like playing like this, you can also play with the standard way of “taking/dealing” damage as other MMOs using a 0/0/30/30/0 + 10 build focusing on Altruistic Healing, Empowering Might and using a Hammer for high protection uptime and self-healing so you can try to outheal the damage you take.

My suggestion however is to learn how to avoid damage so you can play with whatever weapon and whatever build you want.

Use D/D, keep constant movement (Burning Speed, Ride the Lightning) to avoid some phantasm’s attacks, save dodges when you notice illusions walking towards you, circle him to keep pressure and spam PbAoE to keep destroying whatever appears until he drops a bag of loot.

Pick up badges, repeat.

If he stealths and run, /chicken and yell “COWARD!”