Guild Wars 2

They are two different play styles, and it depends on your group comp. Majority of the time I use a 0/0/2/6/6 build (aka healway per se) when I’m doing small scale and even solo roaming. 0/0/2/6/6 is great for team support and survivability, however your damage isn’t going to be that high. Meds on the other hand is very dps ordinated with little to no team support.

So to answer your question. Yes, Healway is very good for small scale roaming.

It’s easier to show then explain.

First thing is to precast Shield of Wrath. After that switch to GS, and do Leap of Faith. While in Leap of Faith, Judge’s Intervention to target. Once you’re on target you want to activate Smite Condition and Virtue of Justice. Symbol of Wrath, followed by Binding Blade. If they try to run or move then you use the pull. If not, you let it tick and follow it with Whirling Wrath. However people do it many different ways, it really depends on the situation.

I’ll upload a quick video in a bit!

Here’s a quick video of what I explained above. Keep in mind you have to adapt to the situation, so the rotation isn’t always going to be the same. This just gives you a basic idea.

Who needs an engi? 5 warriors!

Champ Wraiths are the worst. Everyone has to stack and spam interrupts on their AoE life stealing skill. Most of the time people don’t, so it’s a wipe.

Aveneo.2068:

Hmmm, alright. I’ve been trying to fit together a build. Partly based on your recommendations and partly what I felt was decent. I’m was wondering what you guys think.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJAWRlsApZo1CxVI8DNRCRl1Mg9HMCl51LQAcAA-TFCDABHqEcunAwUKDaa/BtU6Rp6PAcJA2TXApA6XYE-w

You did a decent job with the build, however there are a couple of things I’d recommend you change.

Pure of Voice over Force of Will, extra condition removers will go a lot farer than 3k hp. Plus you already have a decent hp pool with guard stacks. I’d used Energy over Stamina. Also Luck isn’t that great, I’d also change that out for something else.

Also for healing power, that’s a tricky subject. It doesn’t have a diminishing returns, so technically you can never have too much. Personally, my builds with high healing power have around 800-1000. Around ~870 is a solid choice because that’s when your Selfless Daring heals for 1k.

Thanks guy, I glad people are finding the guide informative and helpful. Working on the utilities section now. Sigils, runes, and consumables will come later. After that the guide will be done for the most part. I’ll just continue to tweak it adding new builds, and anything else I see fit.

Phoenix is actually my favorite finisher. It’s simple, elegant, and just looks great. However I do agree with you on dragon. Dragon is terrible, and doesn’t fit the game at all, looks like something they threw together at the last second.

BrandyBiscuits.2873:

thanks for the replies! I’m thinking of going with a healway guardian + maybe a dos guard… still not sure tho, but staff attacks seem so pale to me? how does one control a zerg with staff anyways? unless its purely there for staff 5, speed? But against other small groups of 5-10?

Staff is mainly there for Line of Warding and Empower, other then that you should be using your other weapon. Hammer is an excellent choice to use, great CC and damage to boot. Here’s a video from the other night of some small man stuff 5-8 ppl. I’m using staff and hammer.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Tarsius.3170:

Someone mentioned on this forum that the 6th bonus only applies to allies and not the caster ( like Sigil of Benevolence ).

I’ll add it to my list of things to test though

“Mentioned it”? It’s on the rune description. I don’t know why, but people don’t tend to read the effect properly: “10% Outgoing heal effectiveness TO ALLIES”.

That’s because Anet’s descriptions can be somewhat misleading. Take Altruistic Healing for example. “Applying a boon to allies heals you”, they fail to mention that applying boons to yourself also heals you. There are other instances of this too.

So there’s nothing wrong with being skeptical of descriptions.

Dee Jay.2460:

Yeah I don’t see the deal with Strength Runes either.

They add a decent amount of DPS, but that’s it. We’ve had Scholar Runes since launch and no one had complained about them. They don’t really add anything else except DPS and that’s hardly game-breaking.

The 6th bonus piece is a huge difference between the two. Scholar you have to maintain your health over 90%, which doesn’t happen to often. Strength, you just simply need one stack of might.

I personally don’t have a problem with them. In my view the only rune that needs fixing is Balthazar.

Slight update. Fixed all the sigils since the builder has been updated with the new version. Also added a new gameplay video.

Your best bet would be mixing Sentinel and Cleric gear. For traits there are a number of different routes you can take. 0/0/6/6/2, 0/0/6/4/4, 0/0/4/6/4, and 0/0/2/6/6. Just don’t expect to kill anything because you are pretty much giving up all offensive options for survivability and support.

I think the patch was a step in the right direction. However for me personally, I play less pvp now. The reward track isn’t good enough to keep me playing, and I’m already 80. So there’s not much for me to do. I’ve been near the top of the soloq leaderboard enough, so that doesn’t interest me. Also I don’t have a team, so I tend to stay away from teamq. For the most part I might play a game now and then, but I’d rather go to wvw.

It was a great step in getting more people into pvp, however for the veterans there’s not much incentives still. I’m hoping it becomes better when they release ladders and seasons one day.

Obviously it’s commander Siegerazer, he can use Ring of Warding with greatsword.

Seriously though, there is no “best”. There are a lot of talented Guards out there that play different aspect of the game. Ken, Obal, Brutaly, Silven, Amins, and the list goes on. However that’s the nice thing about the Guardian community, everyone is extremely helpful, and tries their best to help others out.

This is easily the top section when you compare it to the other professions’ subforms.

oZii.2864:

Thoughts on the Force of will trait? I have seen people say they don’t like it and I know it doesn’t have any flash but I find it pretty good 300 vitality is alot of extra HP and you can move those stat toward damage where you might have been looking to get to 16k-17k before.

I have been using it in 0/5/30/30/5 meditation build and I sit around 17khp

I believe it’s one of the better new GM traits. However the biggest issue, it’s in the Honor line. This make it direct competition with Pure of Voice. In the current meta, Pure of Voice is superior. In my view, this would have been better placed either in the Valor or Virtues line.

With that being said, it does work quite well with the med build you mentioned. 1/0/6/6/1 or 0/1/6/6/1. Either one works well, If you’re running symbols (Writ of Exaltation/Persistence) I’d go with the first one. However if you are traiting things like Pure of Heart and Empowering Might, then I’d go with the latter.

Lifestealer.4910:

Harbinger.8637:

Lifestealer.4910:

For a well rounded build, is there a better alternative than celestial?

Yes there are. However it requires a lot of mixing of gear. So it’ll cost you a lot more in the long run if you plan on making ascend. Celestial is just more convenient to get, since it’s only one gear type.

well the issue is just that celestial gear is really hard to get, how would you mix it up the gear and how do you handle chasing people in roams?.. it seems most classes can simply decide not to fight you whenever they want.

If you want a balanced build that doesn’t involve Celestial I’d recommend something like this;

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vUAQNAR8dlsApWotCxfH8DRRkLwWA2DMC/Oe9whUkhA-zECB4fCypmCr5mQZnJsMsIasabYaXAaYLqmUARsAA-w

As for chasing people down, this has always been a problem for Guards, since they lack any type of soft CCs. However there are ways around this; though the use of sigils, runes, and consumables.

Superior Rune of Speed

Superior Rune of Traveler

Swift Moa Feather

Superior Sigil of Hydromancy

Superior Sigil of Ice

These are just a couple of things to make your life a little easier when it comes to sticking to targets. Greatsword and Sword/X is also a great way to keep on target, thanks to the leap and teleport they have. Also the use of Judge’s Intervention is another great tool.

Lifestealer.4910:

For a well rounded build, is there a better alternative than celestial?

Yes there are. However it requires a lot of mixing of gear. So it’ll cost you a lot more in the long run if you plan on making ascend. Celestial is just more convenient to get, since it’s only one gear type.

mrauls.6519:

Show off your character & stats Harbinger I’ve been waitin’!

Sure, I have three different ascended armor types that I switch to depending on what I’m doing. Keep in mind a few things about these screenshots. They include no buffs, and they are my own personal play style. So what works for me might not work for you.

First set is my Berserker/Assassin. This is my dps set, it’s meant for high sustain and burst damage. In the screen I’m running it with 0/6/6/1/1 and runes of Strength.

Second set is my Celestial set. I find this a good middle ground; I run it with a lot of different builds because the versatility it gives me. The screen is 0/1/6/6/1 and runes of Hoelbrak.

Final and last set is my Cleric/Zealot. This is my group comp support/dps build. It meant to provide great support, however it still can do decent damage. In the screen I’m running 0/0/2/6/6 and runes of Trooper.

Those are generally the three main builds and sets I run atm. Also as a heads up, once they update the builder site with the new features from the 15th patch. I’ll update the builds with the new sigils and runes.

Utilities

Now that we have the build, gear, weapons, and traits. Let’s look at the utilities available to Guardian; all the utilities are extremely useful depending on the situation.

Healing skills

A healing skill is a skill that occupies the sixth skill slot on the skill bar. All healing skills restore health via healing; some grant additional benefits.

Litany of Wrath- This has the potential to be our largest heal, it’s only limited by the amount of damage you do. For this reason it’s a very tricky skill to master, however if you use it in the right situation the reward will be great. The only thing I’d recommend is taking Meditation traits when running it to get the full benefits. If you’re not running Med traits, I wouldn’t use it.

Shelter- Arguably the best Guardian healing skill for WvW. Fairly short CD with a decent heal to go along with it. However what makes this so invaluable is the amount of damage you can mitigate. Very few skills can interrupt this heal, so you’re guaranteed a heal and to block a plethora of incoming damage. It also synergies very well with a number of Guardian traits such as, Might of the Protector and Defender’s Flame.

Signet of Resolve- This is one of the larger heals we have, it heals for a great amount. It also has a great passive effect of removing a condition every ten second. However Resolve has two main weaknesses. It has a fairly long CD; however that can be fixed with a trait. Also it can easily be interrupted. That being said, it’s a solid heal even better with the proper traits. You just have to be careful when you use it.

Healing Breeze- Seen as the “weakest” healing skill. It has a fairly long CD with no way to reduce it. It can also be difficult to get allies in your cone to heal them. Lastly it has about a three second cast time, so it can easily be interrupted. If you’re going for full support, and your allies understand they have to be in the cone to get benefits, then yes it’s viable. However I’d still recommend other healing skills before this one.

Consecrations

Consecrations are a type of utility skill exclusive to guardians, involving the placement of helpful effects on the ground.

Hallowed Ground- This is an extremely powerful skill that granted stability and 20% boon duration to anyone in it, it’s also a fire field for an added bonus. However it suffers from two man problems. One, it’s a static skill; you have to remain infield to get the benefits. Also it has a very long CD, even when traited. However I still highly recommend this skill. It shines in holding a specific area such as the lord’s room, and also choke points.

Purging Flames- This is an amazing skill, it has so many uses. First, it removes three conditions from yourself, and allies around you. Second it reduces condition duration by 33% if you remain in the field. Lastly it applies burning to enemies when you cast it. Top it all off with it being a fire field, and having a fairly short CD. This is an excellent skill that’s useful in any situation and build.

Sanctuary- This skill has some merit, however it’s more useful in PvP then WvW due to the amount of players. It has a long CD, even when traited. Also the bubble is fairly small. However the biggest problem is stability. If the enemies have stability they can simply enter. The skill is mainly used for holding a choke or trying to revive/stomp someone. It’s a solid skill; however I believe there are more powerful skills to use. Sanctuary mainly comes down to if the opposing players have stability or not. Majority of the time they will, which in turns makes the skill not as useful.

Wall of Reflection- This is situational skill, but it’s very powerful. It has an amazing 33% uptime when traited. If placed in the right situation it can have devastating results on opposing players. Placing it right in front of key areas can easily shut down enemy offensives. This skill is both offensive and defensive which makes it great. Overall it’s a great skill, however as I stated before it’s very situational. So I wouldn’t keep it on my bar the whole time, just when you need it.

One-handed (Off hand)

Focus- The most used off hand, and for good reason. It’s the perfect balance between survivability and damage. Ray of Judgment gives you blind, regen, and condition clearing all in one package. However Shield of Wrath is the main reason people use it. It gives you the ability to either mitigate a huge amount of damage or the ability to do insane amount of AoE damage, and it’s also a blast finisher to boot! The only real drawback of the focus is the skills have long CDs.

Shield- This is a great weapon when it comes to support and defense. Shield naturally adds toughness which is nice. Shield of Judgment does moderate damage; however it applies protection to you and five allies. So it’s a great skill. Shield of Absorption is also amazing, when used right. It’s great for stomps and rezzing. Thanks to the knock back and shield to stop range attacks. It also has a small heal as an added bonus. The main drawback of the shield is the very long CD times. However this is to be expected when it has such strong skills. This can also be lessened by traiting, Honorable Shield.

Torch- When it comes to pure dps, nothing comes close to torch, not even focus. Zealot’s Flame has the ability to apply AoE burning and does huge single target burst. Cleansing Flame is great for AoE damage and removing condition from allies. The main reason why torch excels at dps, is the short CD times compared to the other off hands. The only weakness to torch is it’s a pure offensive weapon, so there is zero type of defense and survivability.

Combinations

Now that you have an overview on weapons and how to use them. Lets talk about some popular weapon combinations. Keep in mind; these are just a few of the many different combinations you can run.

Hammer and Greatsword- When it comes to AoE and CC, this will give you the best bang you for buck. The amount of AoE and CC is unrivaled.

Staff and Mace/Shield- This is pure support, you damage will be lower, however this is made up for that amount of heals and support abilities you bring.

Staff and Hammer- This is one of my favorite combos, it brings great support. With the ability to do decent damage and a lot of CC to boot!

Greatsword and Sword/Focus- This is the staple for most dps builds. It gives you great AoE and single target damage. Also great mobility, with the options of blinds and blocks.

Staff and Scepter/Torch- This is a ranged guardian. It allows you to support your allies, yet you can still bring damage from afar.

Sword/Focus and Mace/Torch- If you want burst, this is the set up for you! Shield of Wrath, Protector’s Strike, and Zealot’s Flame allows you to have amazing spike potential. However I recommend you run 30 into Radiance to take advantage of Right Hand Strength.

Hammer and Scepter/Focus- This is a lock down setup best used for setting up burst for you and your team. I also recommend you run it with Binding Jeopardy to get the most of it.

Hammer and Mace/Focus- This is a combination best used with a symbol builds, it gives you the ability to apply symbols the fastest.

Weapons and Utilities

Now that you have your traits, and build. Let’s talk about weapons and utilities. The nice thing about Guardian is every weapon is viable; one is not better than the other. They all serve are role, and excel at them. So I’ll talk about weapons, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they should be used. After that I’ll do the same with utilities.

Two-Handed

Hammer- Extremely well rounded, and can be used in any situation. It has great damage output with Mighty Blow being on such a short CD, and it’s also a blast finisher! The auto attack has ability to cleave, and grants protection. This is one of the strongest boons. Lastly it brings the most CC out of any weapon we have. The hammer is great because it’s always useful, doesn’t matter what build you run. The only weakness to the hammer is it’s somewhat slow compared to others. So it’s imperative that you land your hits.

Greatsword- Widely view as the most used weapon in both WvW and PvP, however there is a reason for this. When it comes to DPS, greatsword is king. Every skill on the GS has cleaving and AoE damage. Combined with the fast attacks, it does monstrous damage. It also has great mobility and a small CC aspect. However there are two glaring weaknesses it has. First is predictability. GS is a very easy weapon to read, and your attacks can easily be avoided. Second is retaliation, since the GS has all AoE skills and they are all fast hitting. You can easily take a lot of damage from retaliation, so you need to be careful when using it. Overall the GS is still top for dps.

Staff- This is the pinnacle when it comes to support. Empower is arguably one of the best skills in the game. With the ability to increase group dps output and a solid heal. Also factor in CC ability with swiftness and another AoE heal. That being said this is not really a weapon you want to use for long periods of time. Generally you want to use Empower, Line of Warding, and Symbol of Swiftness. Once these skills are on CD, immediately switch weapons. Don’t not sit there spamming Wave of Wrath. Also I wouldn’t advise using it in solo roaming or 1v1. This is a support tool, not really a weapon. You’re only gimping yourself if use it in these situations.

One-handed (Main hand)

Sword- When it comes to single target dps, sword is your best bet! The auto attack provides great sustain damage. Flashing blade is great for mobility and damage mitigation. Zealot’s Defense is also a solid skill that can be used both defensively and offensively. The main weakness of sword is that Zealot’s Defense is rooted, and also it has no type of symbols. This makes sword only useful for single target.

Scepter- The only true range weapon we have, and it’s a very powerful tool. Scepter’s auto-attack hits extremely hard, however the drawback is it’s slow. Smite is also excellent when it comes to burst damage, both single target and AoE. Lastly you have Chains of Light which is great from immobilize and vulnerability. As mentioned before the huge weakness of scepter is the speed, it’s an extremely slow weapon and it’s easy to miss. To make up for this, think of it as a melee weapon with the option to use it at range. This will make you much more successful in using it.

Mace- This is support/dps weapon. The auto-attack hits hard with the ability to heal, however it also has a drawback of being slow. Symbol of faith is a fast applying symbol with regen and moderate damage. Lastly you have Protector’s Strike, which is amazing. It has the ability to block and do insanely amount of AoE damage. If not then you get the very important boon, protection. The only weaknesses mace faces is it’s a slow and static weapon. Not real mobile and it relies on the enemies coming to you. So I wouldn’t recommend it against ranged classes.

I concur that Intelligence is amazing on bunker/support builds. Nothing like getting 5k crits with Mighty Blow or Protector’s Strike. It lets you set up some really cool burst situations, and also help with Vigorous Precision.

Darn now I have two. I bought one off the tp, and the other I earned I was saving for later to make a profit.

oh well

It was a different type of stream, but it was fun to watch. Learned about cosplay, and all the work that goes into it. Only problem was the technical issues, but that cleared up.

LLAMA

Errant Venture.9371:

Will the Llama finisher rewards be permanent or temporary?

I’m guessing it’s permanent because it’ll also be available in the gem store. Tourny just gives you a chance to win it rather then paying for it.

It’s due to the influx of all the new players. It’s really not that good of a spec, yeah it’s pretty decent in 1v1. However group fights it’s useless. I’d rather fight mm necros then other necro specs.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Reward-track-progress-cap

There’s a daily limit on custom arenas. However tpvp is unlimited.

I’ve been playing around with this and other Celestial builds, and they work pretty well. At least much better then before. Runes of Strength with sigils of Strength/Battle work fantastic with it. The might stacks really help with the loss of power.

They have been broken for awhile now. I’m not going to sit here and say I’m the greatest, so I should be at the top because I’m not. However I do have a fairly good w/l considering the amount of games I played; 706-378. Yet there are people that are 23-25, and they’re ranked 3 overall.

The whole system needs to be revamped, which I do believe they’re doing for ladders and seasons. That’s probably why they don’t put that much effort into fixing them because they are simply going to be replaced.

fadeaway.2807:

Forgive me, I don’t play much WvW.
Why knights gear and possibly zerker on your 0/0/30/30/10 build? Surely keeping yourself alive is the priority, not adding a minuscule amount of dps? Wouldn’t full pvt or sentinel simply be better for that?

The best defense is a good offense, you still need damage output. GW2 favors offense over defense. Stacking huge amounts of toughness and vitality will only get you so far. Every build I post, even tanky/support builds will have some type of damage output. Would you be tankier if you went full Sentinel? Yes ofc, however there comes a point where you can start investing into other stats to get more out of your build. Main points of the Knight/Zerker gear is help with dps output. Also help with Vigorous Precision, and any other type of thing that requires decent CC to achieve (Sigils and Empowering Might).

mrauls.6519:

Please update this guide or make a new post showing the direction you’re moving in since the april 15 patch, please :-)

I’m in the process of updating it, however there are a lot of changes. So it’s going to take some time to test everything out.

Juan Ignacio.8903:

its funny a guy with less played matches than you took your place!

leaderboards are great!

Just shows how bad the leaderboards really are. I mean really Anet, look at the top three. In what other game does this happen?

10-3
20-4
8-4

Aza.2105:

Harbinger.8637:

That’s pretty bad still considering you have that high of healing power. That are a lot more beneficial runes to choose from.

It puts it on the same level as a mango pie. I wouldn’t say there are more beneficial runes out there but more so other options.

And to answer your question Obtena, without healing power its 43hp per tick.

The thing is you have 1400 healing power to hit 77 hps, which is still lower then Mango Pie. Very rarely do Guardian builds have that much, and if u do you give up a lot to hit that high of a stat. That’s why I said there are better choices out there because most builds don’t have that level of healing power.

With no healing power it’s 43hps, which isn’t much better then the pre-patch one. So for the typical guardian build I’d say it who be fair to average around 50-60hps. Which isn’t that significant.

That’s pretty bad still considering you have that high of healing power. That are a lot more beneficial runes to choose from.

nicknamenick.2437:

pls take a look to guardian hammer of wisdown

AA for almost 8k damage on my heavy warrior in pvp!

That actually fairly common, the hammer hits extremely hard. Also add in the fact that it benefits from might. However, nobody really uses Spirit Weapons that’s why most people don’t notice it.

No it looks like something from Yugioh.

It’s a very underwhelming grandmaster trait, goes 30 into a line that competes where a lot of guard builds get sustain from (AH and MF). However the biggest deal breaker is it doesn’t apply to the Guard.

I don’t understand why it’s so small. I mean it’s a dragon…..the shark is bigger then it.

AcidicVision.5498:

Seeing as how there were people in the mists screaming about this “bug” within an hour of the patch going live, I am fairly sure it is working as intended.

The first thing a certain style of players did was jump into custom arenas with their guild mates and trade wins to boost the tracks.

I don’t see any reason to have a legitimate complaint about this at all unless your intention was to boost rewards, which is borderline exploitative. Team Arenas and Solo Queue are both more rewarding and uncapped.

100% agree

Honestly we should wait and see how things play out. The patch hasn’t even been out for a day. Give it a few weeks or a month, and see how things evolve. Like I’ve been using Generosity and Purity sigils when going against heavy condi players, and I’ve been loving it.

titanlectro.5029:

Evan Lesh.3295:

There is a reward track progression cap in custom arenas, but none in solo or team arena. Unfortunately this isn’t clearly messaged. We’re discussing ways to resolve the confusion.

But why is there a cap?

Custom arenas can easily be exploited and farmed, Anet wants to prevent this so they put a cap on it

Overall I’m pleased with it. It managed to breathe some new life into pvp, a lot of new players I’m seeing now. Not really going to talk about balance because the patch hasn’t even been out for a day. Need to give it a few weeks or a month to see how things play out.

GJ anet.

I have to agree with this. At least before we had a goal we could work too, however now there’s really nothing. The back piece won’t take too long to get, maybe a week or so. I’m already 15 of 40 on it, and all I did was three tpvp matches and some hotjoins. So that leaves leaderboards, but we all know how that goes. They aren’t very accurate, also with no incentive to get to the top.

So you pretty much play pvp because you enjoy it, and I still do enjoy it. However seasons and ladders can’t come fast enough.

If anyone is still looking for it, I found one in The Grove next to the trading post.

Rank isn’t an indication for skill, so removing them doesn’t really matter. Visible ranks just cause grieving against lower level players. If they do add something later, it should be your MMR rating, not rank. That’s a better indication of skill.

This is that last thing they said so far on Twitter, it was about 20 mins ago.

Today’s Feature Pack draws ever nearer!Do you need to log in to #GW2 for any of these last-minute preparations? http://ow.ly/vPi5D ~RB2p

It really comes down to how well Radiant Retaliation scales with condition damage. If it scales decently enough, then I can maybe see a condition guard build coming to life. If not, then no it’ll still be subpar to a direct damage build. Also Amplified Wrath is pretty underwhelming, 30 points into a line that nobody ever uses.

For the most part patches are always released around 9-10am pst.

This is a bad idea in the current system, you can get to the top of the leaderboards with only ten wins. If you want to give titles for being at a certain rank on the leaderboards there needs to be requirements. First there should be a minimum number of games required, such as 100. This prevents one-hit wonders that luckily make it to the top, however they don’t belong there because the MMR sets new players too high. Second you need have spent so many days there. This will encourage people to play, and fight for their ratings.

Eyia Hellhide.7320:

I’ve played enough games to know what I can expect and what not. And I main a bunker guardian, tell me how a guardian without a buff icon or active aegis can stop shield 5 knock back?

It’s called Blinds, Guards have plenty of them.