Guild Wars 2

Voltric.6920:

That’s definitely something i’ll have to test when I get home tonight.

The easiest way to test this is probably to use a hammer, autoattack until you get the protection field, activate purging flames, then mighty blow. If what you say is true, you should get both retaliation and 3x might.

If anyone has the time to test this before i head home (in about 9 hours), please chime in :)

Sorry, I must have misspoken.

If you have overlapping fields, you don’t get two combo effects. Your combo finisher activates the first combo field to drop. So if you have Symbol of Protection, and then activate Purging Flames, and then use Whirling Wrath, your finisher is going to activate Combo Field: Light, not Fire. Fire won’t be active unless: A) Symbol of Protection fades or B) You use it in a place where there’s no overlap.

And glad you enjoyed it, Kruunch. :)

Are you using Finishers in overlapping fields? If two people have combo fields down in the same place, priority goes to the first field, then the second.

Sometimes you won’t see the name of the combo effect trigger, but it should still trigger. Can anyone else confirm that? I’ve experienced that a few times while grouping.

That’s what they meant by bandwidth, Frostflare. Figuratively. In BWE2, they mentioned interest in Guardian Longbow, but just did not have the time or resources to devote to adding a whole new weapon to the profession.

And I agree. I am a huge proponent of Guardian Longbow, but I strongly believe we can’t possibly make an effective case for it right now. Even if we did, ANet’s current priority is immediate bug fixing, tuning and balancing of content and dealing with some of the issues troubling the game since release. After that, I imagine they’d start looking at profession balance. Then, eventually, after we have a cohesive metagame and people seem to understand their professions, we might be able to make a case for it.

You’re right though. They’d never add another weapon until they’ve done all they can to balance our existing ones. Expect Scepter/Staff tweaks well before any hint of Longbow.

ErzaScarlet.2386:

Eveningstar.6940:

so the spirit weapon build is viable for dungoen right?

Sure. Spirit Weapons work fine in Dungeons. Give it a shot and let us know how it goes.

sarcasm? >_>

Definitely not sarcasm.

Avatar.1923:

roleplaying is dead.

we have “troopers” behind their computer screens. virtually complaining.

long gone are the days of pen and paper. and of roleplayers.

Man, the negativity on these forums. Our cup runneth over with pessimism.

Nah, don’t feel bad. A lot of players still don’t know about the leap. And Guardians are just starting to discover just how awesome the Hammer is, once we get over our distaste for the low swing speed in Chain 3.

Brutaly has a pretty solid write-up of the strengths of Hammer in the thread you linked. There have been other discussions—I wish I could find them—that illustrate that Hammer’s raw damage is actually very high, despite swing speed.

Just an FYI, the Hammer leap has been in place for a while. Ever since September 14, in fact. Might have been easy to miss, though. We had a rolling batch of patches and fixes that week.

so the spirit weapon build is viable for dungoen right?

Sure. Spirit Weapons work fine in Dungeons. Give it a shot and let us know how it goes.

Char with a white coat. Mesmer.

“Charuman the White”

ErzaScarlet.2386:

whats the most fun build?
i could always go for a signet build but idk
spirit weapon sounds fun
r they any good?

The most fun? Hmm.

That’s pretty subjective, but…on the other hand…

If you use a Hammer, you can launch bears.

I like Warriors. Warriors are a solid, fun class. I’m a bit jealous of their Longbow and some of their traits. They have incredible versatility when it comes to aggressive options.

But I’d never trade either of my two Guardians for a Warrior. I’d miss the support far too much. I don’t think there’s a single Guardian weapon I flat-out dislike, although Scepter seems forced on us too often and Shield could use some tweaking. I love the style—I love being tough, strong and creating huge waves of light with my attacks. I think our Greatsword, Hammer and Sword are way more fun.

While I agree with George Steel on his comments about ranged options and focus, I disagree with his appraisal of Mace and Torch.

Mace is slow and ponderous but very effective and reliable. The symbol is a little slow, but with the right traits, it can become a steady and potent source of regeneration, healing and damage with a much wider radius—on a very short cooldown. And I absolutely love Mace #3. The reason is that Block mechanics become more useful the more you have available to you. With Mace’s Block on a short-ish cooldown, it works nicely with Focus’s block mechanics and Sword’s blind to create a steady chain of reliable mitigation. To top it off, Mace’s Block will block any attack directed toward any ally within its radius, and furthermore, the counter-swing it delivers hits hard.

Torch’s two abilities provide a strong damage option and pair nicely with Sword. Torch #5 deals decent damage and has a cone. The channeling effect is long, yes, but it removes conditions on any nearby allies. With practice and good timing, it’s potentially highly effective, doubling as a damage dealer and a condition remover. And Torch #4 is an excellent option for spreading burn on demand, and doubles as a good ranged attack.

I like Mace. Like much of the Guardian class, it’s not perfect, but it’s solid and reliable.

I’m very happy with the Guardian. So happy, in fact, that I pushed one to 80, then promptly rolled another (who is now 51).

I’m also critical of the lack of ranged options and am an advocate for Guardian Longbow. However, my criticism of Guardian Scepter/Staff does not preclude my love of the profession. Rather, being passionate about my favorite profession necessitates advocacy for change and improvement.

Karl McLain.5604:

Hi there, I’d like to clarify a bit on this issue (and figured I’d do it in the original thread):
The size of the actual skill is the same, regardless of race. What I see in the video is that the asura’s first Shield of Absorption pushes back its maximum (and closest) 5 enemies, then the next Shield of Absorption pushes the rest out of the skill’s radius. The skill’s visual effect is what’s dependent on the size of the character and will be fixed shortly, but the actual area of the ability is static.

Thank you SO much for clarifying this. I’ve been mulling over it for days.

I can’t believe no one brought up Theseus wielding the Epirus Bow from the movie Immortals

That’s so Guardian.

Oh! Check out the Ascalonian Ghosts in Blazeridge Steppes. (I think it’s Blazeridge?) Their archers fire ghostly arrows; it looks fantastic.

One handed only. The wording threw me off the first time I played, but in this game, references to “Sword” denote 1H swords, and “Greatsword” denotes 2H. Greatsword is not considered a subset of Sword weapons.

Hi Nismoz,

Yes, this is an issue that ties in to several Guardian abilities. Size differences subtly change the efficacy of Guardian PBAoEs, and the effect is more evident in extreme size differences (say, Norn vs. Asura). So Whirling Wrath’s radius of effect scales with a Norn’s hitbox. The bigger the Norn, the wider the area, the smaller the chances of consecutively hitting a single nearby enemy.

Mace #3 and Shield #5 scale with Norn size as well, providing a wider area of cover, so being a Norn Guardian does come with some benefits.

Another poster on this forum—I’m sorry; I can’t recall your name—suggested turning off the Melee Attack Assist option from your in-game settings, which prevents you from running through an enemy’s hitbox. If you position yourself carefully enough inside the enemy’s hitbox, you’ll see more hits from your Whirling Wrath.

If ANet has commented at all on size differences affecting skill radius, I have not seen it yet.

Good luck.

Hear hear! Most fun I’ve had in an MMO in ages.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I hope you’re enjoying your Guardians as much as I am (just rolled my second one!)

Aseyhe.2948: That’s an excellent insight, and I will update my guide accordingly, and give you credit. Thanks!

Measuring the quality of a game by its forums is like measuring the health of a city by its hospitals.

(Not my quote. Read it in WoW somewhere. I like it though.)

Thank you very much, Regina, for the sensible response.

Qelris.6901:

Eveningstar.6940:

Hi,

Shield tends to suffer a weak reputation among Guardians partly because Skill #5 is so situational, and Skill #4 while useful, rarely provides anything Focus #4 and Focus #5 don’t. However…

You’re right to suggest Shield is pretty useful in Dungeons. Most Champions are immune (or mostly immune) to Blind anyway, rendering Focus #4 not so useful except as condition removal. Still, I’d like to see a few improvements to Shield #4. Your suggestion of a circle is not a bad idea, although I’d honestly just prefer a wider arc. A limited duration (2s?) Aegis on the caster would help too.

I’d say, block attacks until the cast time is done. Shield of Judgement has like 0.5s cast time?

That’s not bad, but the window of opportunity is so short that successful blocks are either incidental or just exist as a safeguard. 2s is Shelter, so I’d say between 1 and 2 seconds. Another option is: remove the Protection buff and grant 1s of Aegis to all allies in the same cone. If the Aegis block is not used, grant Protection for 3s.

Hi,

Shield tends to suffer a weak reputation among Guardians partly because Skill #5 is so situational, and Skill #4 while useful, rarely provides anything Focus #4 and Focus #5 don’t. However…

You’re right to suggest Shield is pretty useful in Dungeons. Most Champions are immune (or mostly immune) to Blind anyway, rendering Focus #4 not so useful except as condition removal. Still, I’d like to see a few improvements to Shield #4. Your suggestion of a circle is not a bad idea, although I’d honestly just prefer a wider arc. A limited duration (2s?) Aegis on the caster would help too.

1. Both Spirit Weapons and Consecrations are viable in solo play.
2. Guardian damage options exist, but are more restricted. Look at Sword/Torch for good damage, or Hammer and Greatsword for steady damage with good control.
3. Guardians can take on 3 mobs pretty routinely. With good use of utilities and a well timed dodge, it’s not so difficult at all. Weapon choice also matters.
4. Yes. I’ve solo’d skill points at higher levels. It depends a little on the skill point. Certain skill points in Orr are pretty difficult to solo, but for the most part, you won’t have difficulty.
5. Orr is tough for everyone, but a smart Guardian won’t have trouble.

Dgenerate.1948:

Yup. And casual = boring. This game rewards the casual and punishes the dedicated players.

“Dedicated” is not the opposite of casual. “Obsessive” is the opposite of casual. Casual players (i.e, those of us who play less frequently than you) are still dedicated. We still have goals. We still want to improve our skill, our gear, our performance and experience new things.

We just do it in smaller doses.

By the way, the game doesn’t punish dedicated players. If you have a great deal of time to invest in GW2, try sPVP. I’m actually not kidding. GW2 is a brand new game with a metagame still in its embryonic stage. Now is a great time to get into sPVP, accumulate experience, and cultivate real skill. If you have the time and want to devote yourself to something that will distinguish you from other players, go for sPVP.

‘Casual’ is just a stereotype created by frustrated ‘hardcore’ players who can’t understand why obsessively pouring dozens of hours into a game per week doesn’t make them any more fulfilled than the guy who plays for ten hours and seems happy as a clam and has a good set of gear to boot.

‘Casual’ is a vitriolic term used to express contempt for players less masochistic than you. It is a term used to express contempt for developers who design games for—Dwayna forbid—the 90% of gamers who do play ‘casually’ rather than “you,” the ultra-dedicated hardcore type, who’s grinding endgame, buying multiple accounts and dropping a lot of gold into the gem store.

In the context of the OP, ‘casual’ means a relatively run of the mill normal gamer who doesn’t play as often as him but still has better opportunities. The problem is that…

• Casual denotes time played, not skill. If the difference between casual and hardcore were measured in skill, then casual players shouldn’t be able to clear the same content. They can.
• The peculiar use of the term “casual” as a kind of pejorative illustrates just how backward and toxic the idea of hardcore gaming has become. Why shouldn’t we be casual players? Being able to enjoy the same game without having to invest tons of hours a week is a sign of good game design. There’s something fundamentally weird about mocking another player as a “casual” just because they keep sane /played hours.
• Unfortunately for some, ‘casual’ players—players who play primarily on their own, or with friends, or who don’t really do that much endgame content, or play less than roughly 20 hours a week—make up a huge population of the player base. Essentially, they are the playerbase. This is as true in World of Warcraft as it is in Guild Wars 2. Designing for the “hardcore” players at the cost of everyone else is an exclusionary design philosophy and a great way to dissuade players from being a part of your community.

Totally, totally agree with the OP. I’ve been roleplaying exclusively on the fly. No taverns. No vapid chit-chat on the side of a road in Divinity’s Reach. I’m adventuring, and I’m always in character.

It’s been amazing! One roleplayer often causes a snowball effect and several others join in. An example: About twelve of us were in character for the Swamp event in Queensdale, totally on the fly. It was a lot of fun hearing little quips like:

“Sweet Dwayna, what the hell is that thing?”
“Whatever it is, we’re sending it back to the abyss.”

Sure, it was cheesy, but so what? I loved it.

I love that this game has no resource system. No energy. No mana bar. No rage. In fact, this is so amazingly seamless that I barely noticed the absence of resources until today.

This game kept me relaxed and having fun during my post-surgery recovery. That was a month ago. Now I have a bad cold and it’s keeping me relaxed and having fun while I recover.

=) Thanks ANet.

I honestly think designating Tarnished Coast as an official RP server will accomplish very little positive, but lead to justifiable accusations of favoritism on ANet’s part, as well as alienate players who aren’t roleplayers.

Tarnished Coast does not belong to us. Everyone who plays there has a home there. Attaching an [RP] tag in order to designate the home of a relatively niche, relatively small subculture of roleplay enthusiasts is unfair to everyone, especially if that [RP] tag comes with special rules and regulations like WoW’s RP servers (purportedly) did.

I encourage roleplayers to be more proactive about spreading the news of Tarnished Coast by word of mouth. That’s the best way to build a community—invite someone over.

Full disclosure: I’m a roleplayer; I’ve been a roleplayer for over a decade; I roleplay in the field and avoid taverns like the plague.

Focus #5 is limited to four bounces, including allies and enemies. So no, it won’t completely decimate everything. The regen is nice, but relatively minor. And without any conditions to remove, the Condition Removal is more or less wasted. Still, it is useful everywhere. It’s useful solo. It’s useful in small groups. It’s useful on bosses. The short cooldown even makes it useful purely as condition removal when you need it (especially in conjunction with a weapon swap to Torch, or, say, Purging Flames)

The Shield is situational. Hyperbole about the Shield being totally outclassed in every situation isn’t really useful, although admittedly there’s a seed of truth in what you’re saying. The problem is that Shield’s general utility falls behind Focus’s general utility, and the situations in which Shield really shines are relatively rare.

I agree that Shield could use some work. A limited duration Aegis effect on #4 might not be a bad idea, coupled with a 5 second recharge reduction. I’ve been advocating a flat recharge reduction on Shield of Absorption for a while now. The recharge is prohibitively long and keeps you from using it in general use, and you end up saving it not for one or two random ranged attacks, but for big ranged barrages—which almost never happen. So SoA gets relegated to a clunky knockback and a decent heal component, ignoring its primary use.

The big reason Shield seems weak is because we do have access to Focus. Focus’s universal appeal relegates Shield tactics to specific and relatively rare situations, while general use of Shield of Judgement doesn’t provide as much benefit as general use of Focus.

The other issue we all seem to be forgetting: You can have Shield and Focus as weapon swaps, providing use of both skill sets. Granted, this limits you to having two one-handed weapons to swap, but it does effectively double your off-hand support and keep you busier between cooldowns.

Is it just me, or is the original post missing? Were we trolled?

Shimond.2478:

Banewrath.5107:

I`m sorry. I am really confused by what you`re saying. But reducing damage by 100% has always been better then 33%. A block will completely negate the damage from an incoming hit. Protection just reduces it by 1/3. No matter how you use it one, one reduces damage and the other blocks damage alltogether. What I am trying to say is that that the protection buff for the shield should be tossed and the 3 block buff be given to the shield with aoe effect. Then your shield as actually a true functional shield.

I use a mace/shield 99% percent of the time I am online. The other 1% is when I need to kite then it`s scepter/focus or staff if I feel like doing support instead of damage.

If protection hits 3 people (which you can do) then technically 100% of the damage of one attack on AE attacks/conditions is absorbed each hit for the duration. That’s all I’m saying. Yes in a one on one situation you’re absolutely correct, again that’s not why I use the shield – it’s the party tool.

The better argument in defense of Shield isn’t to look at total aggregate damage (partly because three people shaving 33% of incoming damage off attacks is not the same as eliminating one attack) but to look at duration. Blind is great for smaller enemies or single attacks. A well timed blind is wonderful mitigation. What Protection does is soften blows.

I hate using the term alpha strike, because it’s more common in City of Heroes, but the idea is that you want to be able to absorb the initial burst of incoming and frequent damage. So Shield #4 is potentially more mitigation in situations where you’re protecting the party from several attacks from several enemies.

Likewise, Shield #5 is potentially more mitigation if you get the most out of knockback + ranged absorb, which, naturally, requires being under assault by ranged enemies.

So the real comparison is not that Shield is more of a party weapon, or Focus is more of a party weapon. But Shield shines brighter in mass combat situations where several party members are at risk of damage from several sources.

Which is part of the problem. In the situations for which Shield seems designed (Toughness bonuses aside), the mitigation is pretty solid.

But those situations are, in general PVE, pretty uncommon. Meanwhile, Focus is useful pretty much everywhere. Shield isn’t bad; it’s situational. So it looks worse compared to Focus.

It’s true that the Shield provides benefits in party use. At the same time, though, don’t discount Focus for party defense. It isn’t a cone-wide Protection, but Ray of Judgement removes conditions and applies blind with a maximum of four target-bounces. At 25 second recharge and 1,200 range, this is not half bad for party support.

Blinded enemies don’t hurt your party, and condition removal can save lives.

I’m not knocking Shield. I think it’s a solid off-hand weapon. But I understand the argument that, compared to Focus, Shield feels less impressive. Focus is useful in just about every situation; Shield requires good timing on Shield of Absorption to really hold its own. So Shield of Absorption just doesn’t see that much general use, in exchange for which, it can be a situational lifesaver.

Your numbers are off.

30% crit damage doesn’t mean your crits deal 130% damage. It means they deal 180% damage (Base 150% + a flat 30%).

100% crit chance at 50% crit damage is a damage increase of 100%
50% crit chance at 50% crit damage is a damage increase of 50%
53% crit chance at 30% crit damage is a damage increase of 42.4%

I’m very much in favor of advocating Longbow for the Guardian class. We talked about it in Beta, and by BWE2 (or was it 3?) the Devs mentioned they’d looked into the idea, but just didn’t want to commit to a new weapon this close to release.

I think we can make a stronger case for or against Longbow once we can have a stronger discussion on profession balance. To do so will require a more developed metagame, and that will take time. Right now, ANet is focused on squashing bugs and removing exploits, and maybe tuning content. Heavier rebalancing of professions won’t happen until more players are running dungeons, doing sPVP, doing WvWvW and sharing builds.

Right now, the metagame is still in its infancy. Players are still figuring things out. I don’t think ANet is going to listen to a debate over new weapons until the metagame matures.

A recent notation on the GW2Wiki states that Empowering Might apparently has a 1-second cooldown, which makes sense, I suppose (but throws a wrench into my build. I’m 10/30/0/30/0, capitalizing heavily on multiple crits for party support).

Also keep in mind that Might durations will taper off at five seconds. So if you trigger Empowering Might, given the internal cooldown, you can only accumulate so many stacks before prior stacks start to fade away. If I’m constantly in melee and attacking, I can usually keep 2-3 stacks of Might up on my allies without a problem.

As for Superior Rune of the Pack, I couldn’t find any relevant information. Sorry about that.

Red Falcon.8257:

It’s obvious everyone is getting the signet, other heals are barely worth it.
Healing Breeze doesn’t heal others enough to be worth the 3 sec cast time nor the 40s CD, takes away too much self-healing and isn’t an effective way to heal anyways.
Shelter healing is too weak, 2s block is not enough to make up for the health loss.

I doubt anyone actually uses anything outside the signet.

Warriors had their heals toned to be on par with each other, will our heals be balanced too?

I’m very skeptical about this sort of theorizing, because it’s dismissive of tactical nuance. We have this weird habit in MMOs of discussing abilities in terms of black and white, viable or inviable. If you’re going to dismiss Healing Breeze and Shelter right off the bat, I think you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

One thing to remember is that you can—and should—change your utilities/heals/elites as necessary. You have three heals. Each of them is useful in different situations. If you’re using nothing but Signet of Resolve—ever—then you’re leaving options on the table.

As many have pointed out already, Shelter has potentially far superior mitigation to Signet of Resolve, depending on how much damage you block. Two seconds of block is potentially very high mitigation. Sure, you aren’t likely to mitigate much in general leveling, but what about dungeons? What about sPVP and WvWvW? You will get much more mileage out of Shelter provided you mitigate high incoming damage.

Healing Breeze isn’t monolithic. It isn’t our party heal, in the way Flash of Light was in World of Warcraft. In order to get the most out of Healing Breeze, you need to be able to aim the cone. Healing Breeze sacrifices some personal healing for superior group support. No, the group healing component of Healing Breeze isn’t high on its own, but cumulatively, as part of a build that emphasizes group support through healing. We’ll never be “healers” and Healing Breeze won’t bring us any closer to that ideal, but it does have a role in Honor/Virtues setups that emphasize group mitigation.

Signet of Resolve is a wonderful skill and universally useful. It isn’t mandatory. Signet of Resolve is probably better for general use, but Shelter and Healing Breeze are much better for their specific situations. Because you have access to all three skills, and a potentially infinite number of skill points to spend, you should buy all three, and equip Signet, Shelter or Healing Breeze as necessary.

Besides, why would you want three separate Healing skills, all of which are “on par” with one another’s numbers? That’s three totally redundant healing skills none of which are tactically interesting.

Keep in mind that despite Cantha being cut off from the rest of the world, Canthan traditions still survive. In fact, in the Human personal story, there’s a point (I think it’s with the Dead Seraph Sister arc) where Logan Thackeray asks you where you’re from. You can answer: Krytan, Elonan, Ascalonian or Canthan.

Canthan descendants exist, just as Elonan expatriates and their descendants exist.

And over the many decades, Canthan/Elonan/Krytan/Ascalonian cultures have experienced a kind of syncretism where traditions bleed over and establish themselves into new practices.

This is why Paragon traditions are visible in Guardian skills, even though Guardians are disassociated from any kind of necessary religious devotion. It’s where Thieves picked up Assassin skills.

I’ve always found it strange that the Guardian shield just does not have a block mechanic in any of its skills. It seems so counterintuitive to the whole idea of using a shield—to block things. I don’t think it’s a bad weapon, but I can imagine a lot of players being thrown off by Focus being our go-to offhand for personal defense.

Of course, I am saying this as a level 80. But I feel that for non-level 80s the other trees are still more useful. I have to say that I hate that Zeal looks so good on paper but in practice is just so much less so.

This is a good point. In fact, at level 80, I saw far less frequent use of Renewed Justice. If I’d ever use it, it was probably just prior to killing an enemy for 3-stacks of Might and an instant refresh.

Leveling up though, it was invaluable. Everything from general solo to Dynamic world events. But yeah, at 80, you’ll see less use out of it, especially in situations where enemies don’t die in ~5-10 seconds (i.e, WvW, instances). As always, depending on your playstyle, YMMV.

Crabsy.8637:

Oh wow I can’t thank you all enough for the help. I am super anxious to get home from work and make my Norn hammer guardian. I am having a hard time looking at traits on my phone but I have a question. If I want to do lots of damage of with my hammer but beef up he symbol which trait lines would work best for that? Also are there traits that make the hammers symbol actually help wih damage?

<3 you all!

A great way to deal damage with any build is 15 Radiance and 10 Zeal (for Fiery Wrath). Along with the modest boost to Precision, Power and Condition Damage/Duration, this build gives you a stronger Virtue of Justice and lets you activate it at least every fight (multiple times per fight if you’re up against multiple enemies.) Optionally, another 5 points in Virtues gives three stacks of Might whenever you use Virtue of Justice. This is a pretty popular set-up because it’s reliable and useful while leveling, and it’s also weapon-neutral.

For beefier symbols, you want some combination of:

• Zeal
  • Symbolic Exposure (Symbols Apply Vulnerability) – 15
  • Symbolic Power (Increased damage of Symbols) – 25

• Honor
  • Writ of Exaltation (Symbols are larger) – 10
  • Writ of the Merciful (All Symbols heal allies) – 20
  • Writ of Persistence (Symbols last longer) – 20

If you want absolutely every Symbol Trait, then you’ll need 25 Zeal and 30 Honor. Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave you with more than 15 Trait points to spend anywhere else. Incidentally, this is exactly as much as you need to go 15 Radiance for Renewed Justice (this lets you spam Virtue of Justice).

If you want more breathing room, you could go 25 Zeal and 20 Honor, and just get Writ of Exaltation and Writ of Persistence. That leaves you with 25 points to put wherever you like.

Remember to look at the entire Trait line though. Unlocking a Trait line lets you switch available Traits on the fly, so don’t feel like you’re required to go deep Zeal or deep Honor.

Preview Most Weapon/Armor Sets In The Game

Head over to the Heart of Mists and drop by one of your PVP lockers. They’re arranged like Collections Tabs that you’d find in your bank, but instead of holding crafting materials, they hold armor. All the armor available in the Heart, actually.

The best part? You can right click on any icon and click Preview to see what it looks like ahead of time. Most (if not all?) of the armor there is also available in PVE.

Have fun playing dress-up!

1. Hammer feels slower, but with good application of its attack chain plus Mighty Blow, actually deals a lot of damage. It’s a perfectly serviceable alternative to Greatsword for leveling, and I recommend you keep one in your pack at all times anyway. (The control options for Hammer do come in handy in many situations.) Broadly speaking, you can level just fine with most weapons (staff might be difficult—but keep one for Dynamic Events.)

2. Here’s a suggestion. Press H and go to the PVP section. Head over to the Heart of Mists. Go to the Gear Locker. (It’s a lot like your collections tab in your bank, but it’s only for PVP gear.) You’ll find a massive list of all available armor in the Heart of Mists. You can right-click any armor/weapon icon and click preview. This will let you see many of the game’s armor models at any point in your character’s development.

3. I like blue and gold. I’m a bit of a buff for good outfit design (played City of Heroes for several years).

4. I love Guardian. I went all the way to level 80, leveled up again about ten or twelve times, and then decided to go another route and rolled my second Guardian yesterday. I….I may have a problem.

5. Most Guardian support abilities are active, not passive. Very few are truly passive. Even Signets and Spirit Weapons require activation. If you’d like more information on Guardians, I’ve got a rough but comprehensive guide for beginners in my signature. We also have a lot of discussions going on our forum, so keep an eye out!

Good hunting!

If you’re looking to support your Hammer with traits, I recommend taking a look at any Traits that improve symbols. Making Symbol of Protection as powerful as possible is pretty fun.

I was initially thrown off by this early in beta, but eventually you get used to the distinction between greatsword and sword. Sword always refers to a 1H sword.

Knuckledust,

Honestly, I agree with you.

I use Shields often because I enjoy the theme, and I like practicing my timing with Shield of Absorption. Furthermore, I get some pretty good mileage out of #4 in groups. But I agree. It could be better.

I’ve always thought it peculiar that a Shield has absolutely no block mechanic at all. Also, the long cooldowns on Shield make it an oddly passive off-hand weapon. The extra protection is nice, but not all that noticeable or significant without some investment in Valor. Short of switching Focus #5 with Shield #5, here are a few small suggestions I think might help Shield:

• Have #4 grant a small duration Aegis to the Guardian in addition to the group Protection. Conversely, remove the group Protection mechanic, replacing it with a short duration (1s?) Aegis.

• Reduce Shield of Absorption’s recharge by 10 seconds. Detonating the Shield of Absorption early adds an additional ten seconds to the recharge. Heal allies for a small amount per projectile absorbed. This should improve Shield of Absorption’s reliability and reward good timing.

What do you think? I might be overshooting it a tad, but I feel like this could make Shield more attractive.

This is an excellent guide. Well-written, informative and well-organized.

I’ve been running a one-hander build using Right-Hand Strength and Empowering Might, but your guide has me seriously considering a Greatsword.

Thanks!

So, I got the 25% chance from the Guildhead trait builder. So either that’s out of date, or the Wiki is. Let’s assume Guildhead is out of date, and it’s the original description: “When you apply burning, remove a boon. This effect can only trigger once every 20 seconds.”

I’m thinking this works like 1 in your list.

The effect is: An application of burning removes a boon. That effect can only trigger once every 20 seconds. I don’t think it’s once every 20 seconds per target. I think the effect itself can only happen once every 20 seconds. I.E, one boon removed per 20 seconds.

I’d have to test it though. Know any good PVE enemies that start off with boons? Ettins maybe?

Freauxzen.2451:

Eveningstar.6940:

The effect can only trigger once in 20 seconds, so it will remove one boon from whomever is inside Purging Flames.

Right but once per player? Or once overall? Even if it only pulses once, MoC should let it sit long enough to have a nice effect over a small area.

Just trying to think creatively, outside the box, of a versatile offensive support build.

Hmmm…that’s a good question.

Hang on. I may be going by outdated information. I don’t have access to the game at the moment, but the Wiki states that it has a 20-second internal recharge. In that case, I assume the Guardian triggers it once, and only once, before it goes on recharge again. I don’t think the 20-second recharge applies to individual targets.

But it may very well be that the wiki is outdated. As Qelris said, I think the current form of searing flames gives it a 25% chance to remove a boon.

Purging Flames only pulses once, in the sense that anyone caught inside or entering the Purging Flames borders gets a non-renewing five second burn. Still, with enough targets around you, it does, as you say, sit long enough to potentially strip boons from several targets.

Actually, now you have me thinking. You could capitalize heavily on Searing Flames by focusing on burn effects. Sword+Torch triggers burn through passive Virtue of Justice pretty often, which is to say nothing of Torch’s #5. Then there’s Judge’s Intervention, Shimmering Defense, Shattered Aegis, A Fire Inside…

The 25% boon removal chance doesn’t seem so small if you’re constantly triggering Burning effects.

So yes, you may be right.

Thanks for the feedback!

The enemy may miss because of blind, but for the second attack you only block one enemies’ attack, not all of them. Meaning the rest of you can still hit you.

This is a good point. Corrected the guide to remove the reference to blocking in an area.

You didn’t even mention the condition removal which is half the point of 4, you don’t need to stack regen as it only stacks in duration. Using 4 for that is a waste. Your allies can live for 4 secs without regen.

I didn’t mention condition removal because I wanted to emphasize the additional blind as a form of mitigation. That paragraph deals with Mace/Focus synergy. You’re right that the Regen isn’t nearly as useful for party support as Condition removal. I’ll add a line in the off-hand section to reflect that.

Signet of mercy doesn’t revive dead targets, only downed ones. And it’s not even a full revive, it’s just a very large heal that targets downed players. If the player is poisoned and at very low health, he won’t be resurrected, merely healed.

I’ve used it to revive dead targets. But if something’s changed or I was mistaken, I could use more feedback on this point. I’ll do some more testing once I can get home.

You’re actually encouraging Judge’s Intervention as a gap closer, which is incredibly bad in PvP. It’s usually the only stun-breaker in someone’s skill bar, are you really suggesting that they blow it for 1,200 distance covered?

This is a PVE guide. Yes, one of the possible uses of Judge’s Intervention is a gap closer, but it doesn’t have to be a gap closer as a means of entering combat, but moving within a battlefield. I’ve used it to good effect in the heat of battle as a way of getting to a problematic enemy.

I apologize if the length was excessive, but I erred on the side of caution. I can’t predict how much or how little a new player knows, and this guide was intended to have something useful for any new player.

Thanks again for the feedback.