Guild Wars 2

Bleh, why do I even bother trying to enlighten all you zerker drones. Keep full zerkering brah!

CptAurellian.9537:

Hunter.4783:

Time to reconsider Knights vs Zerker gear in PVE

Why should anyone do that? Defensive stats are still useless.

Yes and no.

Yes when the DPS advantage of the berserker set clearly outweighs the benefits of something like the knights set.

However, note that CRITICAL DAMAGE is the stat which is taking a “hit” in the zerker set, not the power or precision. Therefore if the overall change is a 10% dps loss, and crit dmg provides 1/3 of the dps boost (for argument’s sake) that particular stat is in fact taking a 30% hit in effectiveness.

Not only that, but now sets like knights and solders will be closer to zerker in the DPS spectrum. Now of course I haven’t done the math yet, but the new scenario will be like:

Do I wanna lose 10% DPS and gain 1k armor instead of 30% DPS prenerf.

When you look at it this way, its not as clear cut. yes I know DPS is the way to go, but the recent changes will allow players to consider tradeoffs to full zerker gear.

Time to reconsider Knights vs Zerker gear in PVE

Again, you can run full zerker gear as AH and retain 90% of the DPS while boosting your survivability by 5×.

Its a good deal when u are pugging fractal 49

guanlongwucaii.3162:

AH IS selfish. You can provide useful boons in a full dps spec while obviously not being a DPS burden on the team.

And no, full DPS builds don’t have “less DPS uptime” unless you’re terrible at the game. Even so you could run zerk hammer 15/25/0/20/10 which provides more support than a useless AH dungeon build while also providing much more DPS. The 200 extra vitality and permanent protection will help to keep you alive.

There is no reason to run AH in a dungeon. If you were sick of the DPS meta you would benefit the team more by running a condition removal heavy spec (which most AH builds aren’t since the best condi removal trait guardians have is 20 virtues) rather than a build that serves little purpose other than to keep you alive.

0/0/30/20/20 With hammer and longer lasting symbols.

Perma prot, 2x AoE party removal. STG for stability, WoR shield and purging flames as necessary. 5x more survivability than your typical glass cannon build.

Explain to me how this build is selfish?

You can run a full zerker setup and still retain 90% of the survivability a PTV AH bunker build would have just by traiting correctly.

People tend to attribute AH to full PTV bunker which is NOT the same thing. its true you will do about 15-20% less THEORITICAL DPS compared to a DPS meta setup but you will have a ton more DPS uptime.

Also remember that AH synergises with boon spamming which people tend to attribute to party support. So if someone tells you AH a “selfish” build, that’s a strait up lie,

fadeaway.2807:

Arenanet has said a lot of things in the past.
Nothing will change. They’ll probably do something stupid like increase mob hp because zerkers burn through it too fast. That or remove everyone’s easy access vigor and call it a day.

Whatever happens, the new meta will be whatever gives the highest dps.

Negative, not if you make encounters around heavy AoE and condi pressure where survival rather than DPS wins the encounter.

Oh noes, my ascended zerk gear! TRANSMUTE!

So now we will have to THINK about build diversity rather than mindlessly zerg down telegraphic bosses like lupi? crazy talk!

No offense bro but anyone who takes your hammer 1 chain 3 in their face is not worth being shown in your video. Any competent PVPer would have creamed you with your current zerg set up. All you did was show fights vs bads

Props to you for solo roaming on a zerg set up guardian but all you did was reinforce the idea that most people in WvW are so bad they make regular guard NPCs look threatening

Sorry, I meant horizontal progression, topic title changed

What if we have Character progression in terms of aesthetics BUT linked to ingame skill.

For example, take ascended armor and introduce 2-3 upgrade tiers to it, similar to the fractal capacitor. This time however have each item require a key component which only drops after a certain lvl of fractals. Have this key mat drop fairly often, but only lets say fractal 40+. The second tier can drop lets say at lvl 80+

This way, whoever is doing fractal lvl 40+ is going to look different from the one running lvl 80+. This way you can show off your progress and dedication without any power creeping. Of course the tier 2 ascended armor would have to look faily epic

This system gives you both bragging rights, as well as something to work towards in the long run.

What about Character progression in terms of aesthetics BUT linked to ingame skill.

For example, take ascended armor and introduce 2-3 upgrade tiers to it, similar to the fractal capacitor. This time however have each item require a key component which only drops after a certain lvl of fractals. Have this key mat drop fairly often, but only lets say fractal 40+. The second tier can drop lets say at lvl 80+

This way, whoever is doing fractal lvl 40+ is going to look different from the one running lvl 80+. This way you can show off your progress and dedication without any power creeping

Zerg play: PTV weapon, PTV armor /w boon duration runes zerk/PTV accessories. adjust accessories the way you see fit and depending how tough it gets.

GvG play: Cleric and boon duration runes.

You have the specs down as it is. Don’t bother with soldier runes, you will be running at least a consecration if not 2, boon duration works out much more nicely.

SYG + boon duration = 10 sec stability on 24 sec cooldown
HTL + boon duration = 10 sec regen and 8 sec prot (if not more) on 24 sec cooldown

Those 2 >> any kind of med nonsense u are bringing. Add in PoV, and u have a winner.

Agreed, meditations have no room in PVE. They are too selfish and they require too much an investment to be made worthwhile.

A single WoR is infinitely more useful than all 4 of your medis

Im starting to lean on Boon duration runes for an “overall” setup….that or travelers….

Also what will make or break it will be the crit % distribution on armor, if it follows the same pattern as trinkets, the choice will be simple.

Oh ya, and you wanna know the best part? There are no soldier insignia on sale as of right now. So getting 6 of em should be fun

But zerker is so boring though!

pristo.6471:

Hello! I have been thinking for a long time on this matter. I found out that, for me, the combination that works best is:
Divinity armor + Divinity runes + Divinity accessories
This is just my personal opinion, but i think you benefit from every single stat and it is the best all around option.

hope it helped!

Divinity? you mean celestial?

Anyone already decided on what Ascended armor prefix to get?

I am torn between several combinations because since this is my main and the class I play 90% of the time I have well over 5 armor sets which I use depending on game type (wvw roaming, zerg, PVE, etc)

So let me ask you a somewhat different question:

Which prefix and rune set would you recommend in order to encompass and do well in most areas of PVP. I realise a single set will not excel in most, of not any but lets try to get the most optimal combination.

Keep in mind that since ascended accessories now are quite available, they can be interchanged to cope with most scenariors.

Here are what I have been thinking

Zerker armor + Runes of speed + zerker accessories —> PVE
Zerker armor + Runes of speed + PTV accessories --> zerg
Zerker armor + Runes of speed + Zerker/PTV (mix) accessories —-> Roaming

PTV armor + Soldier runes + zerker accessories —> PVE (sucks I know, don’t hurt me)
PTV armor + Soldier runes + Zerker/PTV accessories --> Zerg
PTV armor + Soldier runes + Zerker accessories —> Roam

Valk Armor Runes of Speed/Traveler/Soldier is also another alternative

What are your thoughts guardian community?
What set up would you recommend?
What setup have you already chosen for your guardian and for what game mode?

Forgara.9172:

We adventurers defend Tyria from all of Scarlet’s crazed schemes.

We hone our skills and become more powerful, but not all of us make it; we have lost many friends along the way. Consumed by madness, struck down by some abomination, or taken from us too soon by “RL” and a disease called “LS boredom”. Slowly our numbers dwindle and only the strongest, most determined continue onwards.

---

At the pinnacle on our final fight towards Scarlet…

Scarlet: No questions remain unanswered. No doubts linger. You ARE Tyria’s greatest champions. You overcame every challenge I laid before you. My mightiest servants have fallen before your relentless onslaught… your unbridled fury…
Is it truly righteousness that drives you? I wonder…

The Elder Dragon Jormag emerges

Jormag: You trained them well, Scarlet. You delivered the greatest fighting force this world has ever known… right into my hands – exactly as I intended! You shall be rewarded for your unwitting sacrifice.

Watch now as I corrupt them, as they become servants of ice. They will shroud this world in chaos and destruction. Tyria’s fall will come at their hands — and you will be the first to die.

I delight in the irony.

---

Thus concludes the Living Story arc, and the beginning of a fight against Jormag. Too bad the only people who didn’t quit the game by now are servants of Jormag, who sits on the Frozen Throne.
GG

The Frozen throne was the epitope of WoW’s lore as well as its true end. What came after was simply a poor attempt at milking the cow

Bash.7291:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRArd5PlUg67WFSLkiIXgNjAiwqCxD7BGhfHB-jEzAY/khtCEaL0EEEySgoChO7psmAFErsFRjVvgpUJiq9GFRrWKglUGB-w

This is my current Roaming/dueling spec. It is a bit more hybrid based, and better at dealing with more annoying condition specs due to dual condition shout removal, and food, If you know you are about to fight something that isn’t a condition based build you can always switch food for power/per of tough/perc food. Also You can switch out hold the line at any point for either signet of judgement for the passive defense/active weakness. Or also retreat if you need to get around the field a bit faster. also, you can switch torch/focus to match either scepter/mace depending on how you want to play, as torch does work with the ranged abilities of scepter. I use it with mace simply because I like to precast torch #4 when someone is about to get into range so i can get the 20% extra damage bonus for mace #3, which can hit like a truck.

Also just a note, none of the gear in that build is ascended, I am sure a better stat layout can be made by mixing/matching the right pieces, but I always find it better to show builds with exotics because they are easily available to everyone.

That’s a downright terrible build. I don’t understand when people will realise that shouts = bad for roaming.

Where to start…No mobility, no burst, mediocre sustain, and the most important one….you have absolutely no pressure. What this means is that anyone can easily kite you, or run away to their hearts content and get away with it.

What you need for a successful roaming guardian is :
1) traveler runes
2) IJ
3) GS, Hammer or both

if you don’t have at least 2 of the above, don’t even bother. Also I would strongly recommend meditations for solo roaming as your healing output will be much much higher while allowing you to pressure and chase.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

. So if you can’t pull off a heal with cast time, it’s a player’s skill issue.

.

Ahh, leave it to the likes of you to turn any kind of discussion into a bragfest

Maybe you haven’t realised that not everything boils down to PVE. In PVP, insta vs non insta casts play a HUGE role, due the massive amounts of CC going on.

Being able to pop the heal while in air, stunned, feared, or what not is priceless.

In addition, It being insta cast allows you to proc the 5sec bonus while you are mid channel. Imagine you got the perfect angle on 3 guys and you start casting your WW or Hammer 2, and you pop year heal at the same time. Now you can fully capitalise on the 5 sec dmg —> healing bonus.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Aza.2105:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Brutaly.6257:

On a serious note, totally useless skill unless you land a focus/mb burst or lay down the smack with symbol bombing on a crowd while having it active.

I completely, and extremely disappointedly, agree with you. I think even for PvE, this skill is a HUGE let down.

I imagine you will be lucky to land one skill when you consider lag, animation time and after casts. Really the duration is way to low to be able to do anything.

I’d actually might be okay with this skill entirely if the CD was lowered.

No, whats the breaking the skill right now is the CAST TIME. They went out of their way to make all meditations insta cast to make em viable to shouts. And now they introduce a medi heal with a cast time?

If they remove the cast time, It will be the skill the choice for medi builds, if it retains the cast time, it will be trash

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Hunter.4783:

Most full zerker 10/30/30/0/0 advocates run most content in guild groups and TS constantly, stacks and optimize their parties and have never pugged a single dungeon in quite a few months now.

I hope you are joking…. I don’t know if you are baiting people into responding to a troll post. But just in case you are serious.

No half decent player runs a 10/30/30/0/0 build in a dungeon. That is a PvP/WvW meditation burst build. In dungeons that is utter crap, since it is not our highest dps spec, nor does it bring what we need in dungeons like master of consecrations.

What you described was a bad guardian build, only used by new players. Real top shelf guardians run a 10/25/x/5/10 build with the rest of the points up for personal choice. Generally 25 into virtues for the per boon damage bonus(and unscathed contender 20% more damage) and the last 5 either for superior aria or RHS. Please read a real guide and don’t spew misinformation on this forum:

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

No kitten Sherlock, but to a new player, 10/30/30 is equally as glassy as anything non-AH out there.

My point is for him to actually do what he is most comfortable with instead of following the glass cannon band wagon

PTV armor from karma vendors, Berzerker everything else.

Going full zerker as a newbie guardian is NOT recommended because you will die a lot and also require a more fine tuned party make up for dungeons.

Most full zerker 10/30/30/0/0 advocates run most content in guild groups and TS constantly, stacks and optimize their parties and have never pugged a single dungeon in quite a few months now.

Do not listen them, dead = 0 DPS. You are better off being tanky with 50% DPS potential and 100% DPS uptime rather than with 100% DPS potential but dead 50% of the time.

Also remember that even being downed (not fully dead) jeoperdizes you entire party because they
1) Stop DPSing to rez you
2) Put themselves in danger and possibly wipe to rez you.

If you spent some time reading these forums you would learn that a lot of people are full of kitten. Most glass cannon builds are suboptimal for general pug/party play and only work when in highly specializing parties or are just posted as a means to show off. “oh look, I can survive as full GC guardian, im better than everyone”

Keep in mind you should add +(healing from Monks focus x healing power modifier). I wouldn’t be surprised if this heal outshined all others in a MF medi DPS build.

With 24 sec cooldown, another source of fury and INSTANT CAST, you are looking at possibly one of the strongest skills in our kitten nal

taugrim.7604:

Hunter.4783:

Shouts don’t work that good for 1v1 roaming unfortunately and a meditation build with traveler runes will give you nearly 100% more burst dmg, pressure AND sustain.

What kills people in 1v1 and 2v2 is burst and the ability to pressure when u have them on the defensive, you have none of that. That is why medi burst is king in solo romaing

Understood re: applying pressure.

So basically you’re saying for roaming that:
Meditations > AH + shouts

Hunter.4783:

You have neither GS nor Sword, so your mobility will be severely crippled whenever u are chasing or trying to run away from stuff.

Yes, I forgot to update the link. I find GS3 to be very valuable, as a gap closer or creator, and for the AOE blind.

Hunter.4783:

You also have retreat for mobility which will hinder you at times due to popping it for condi cleanse vs mobility and vice versa.

I also use Retreat for the on-demand AOE Aegis.

What food are you using? I assume you’re not using -condi food. If you are using Traveler’s Runes then I assume you consume food that supports your burst.

I use condi reduction food and maintenance oil. Sometimes I switch to life leech food depending on who I am fighting. I use the lvl 70 foods which let me switch between them on the fly.

The beauty of meditations is that you can chain sword #2 GS#3 and IJ for chase or escape and be nearly untouchable.

Smite condi by itself heals me for 2200 or something like that, which is much more than hold the line or SY does, and this is not even including the ultra short cooldown.

Contemplation is a bigkittento every necro and Mesmer. Wait till they relay the first wave of condies on u before you use it for maximum effect. Its how you kill necros, basically, you make sure you have enough DPS and pressure to down or take em really low before their second set of cooldowns is up.

Traveler runes is mandatory.

I am not posting a build because the med roaming build can be highly customisable. I personally use PTV armor, (zerk everything else) for some extra survivability.

Shouts don’t work that good for 1v1 roaming unfortunately and a meditation build with traveler runes will give you nearly 100% more burst dmg, pressure AND sustain.

You have neither GS nor Sword, so your mobility will be severely crippled whenever u are chasing or trying to run away from stuff.

You also have retreat for mobility which will hinder you at times due to popping it for condi cleanse vs mobility and vice versa.

What kills people in 1v1 and 2v2 is burst and the ability to pressure when u have them on the defensive, you have none of that. That is why medi burst is king in solo romaing

WvW is the glorified PVE endgame people have been asking for. Give it 6 more months or so after they add another tier of gear and maybe even rare infusions with +10 stats each.

THEN, will you start seeing gear as well as skill factor in more heavily. Skill will have to make up for the greater gear discrepancy. Gear itself will reward people with more time dedicated to a character, as it should be in a PVE setting.

haviz.1340:

Silentstorm.7531:

@haviz
for a very long time Ele was good almost too good. I have one so I’m not that sorry for Ele’s.

In my opinion, elementalist was good only for bunkering 1v1 and could disengage easy.

Even now they still in better shape then Guardian.

Agree. In pvp every team has one elementalist, unlike a guardian. In pve, every team has one elementalist, unlike a guardian. In other words and in my humble opinion, elementalist is in good spot, unlike guardian who lacks presence in various game modes.

O.O
rightful sarcasm for once

Not sure what silent is smoking. Guardian is in a very well spot in PVE, does decent in tPVP and very well in WvW.

My only gripe is the limited availability in spvp outside of bunker but we are slowly getting there.
In WvW outside of staff in zergs the roaming med build fares very well vs most classes. Only class it loses to is the bunker condi engie is which is currently OP as kitten

Crapgame.6519:

Hey Hunter. He has several to choose from. I don’t think you are being too blunt but I’ll say Amins isn’t one to have an ego though. Last clip he has is against FA which has you know is one of the top 8 due to their Aussie / Oceanic / Population player base.

If you have time maybe check out his others and maybe that will answer your questions. Maybe not. Then again, anyone who can stall or withstand a incoming sea of red like they did wins.

Its why I specifically quoted that video. I play on SBI, so I know and have played vs FA

Amins.3710:

Fun Fight w/ Standard ZD Build

Very unorganized and sloppy gameplay on either side of the zerg. All people did was group on whoever overextended and try to chip in enough dmg to tag the enemy before going down.
Im not impressed with clips.

Try to include 1vX or even 3vX, but not this kind of gameplay.

Sorry if im being blunt but I don’t like sugar-coating things or stroking egos.

Agreed with urieldhynne.2743

Health is too low for zerging. YOu will need a set of PTV armor and soldier or boon duration runes. In a zerg with staff equipped mobility is a non issue.

When roaming, I feel your build is too squishy, unless you have 5 stacks of defense vs guard buff and even then, you will be facing warriors and necros with upwards to 30k health. So you might wanna sub in some PTV in there or some valk.

Build is most likely 10/0/30/30/0

Gear should be PTV or valk with zerker accessories

HOW AM I DOING SO FAR?!!!

Oh and clicker!!

Here is an idea with zeal:

Grand master trait: Critical hits shave off 2s off your virtue recharge

And suddenly now you have 30/0/30/5/5 viable or even 30/x/x/x/15

Brutaly.6257:

The worst thing is that its an offensive trait line but in order to get it to work you need to traits and gear defensively.

To gear healing power with at least 15 points in honor si a waste.

So the question is, will we be seing 20/x/x/15/x builds and if so, why?

Why even dress down from dps to get healing power when you can have the same dps from staying out from those 20 points in zeal and choose and offensive gear or more points in honor.

Its a gimmick, just like glacial heart.

Make Zealous Blade a straight number, 50 per hit, and not scale with healing power and ofc make it so it affects all weapons but the damage buff would only affect GS.

Bingo!

Core guardian problem since day 1.

Unless they add some core functionality changes in zeal , there is 0 benefit in going past 10.

Ofc, lets hope they don’t flat out nerf honor to “encourage” us to trait into zeal

I am having good results with a hybrid med based build which also has points into honor for 2h mastery and increased symbol size.

Weapons are hammer and GS which when chained together give good results.

I am experimenting with a hybrid boon duration build 10/0/0/30/30. It can be deceptively damaging due to its 3 dmg modifiers that can be used in conjunction to GS burst for great results.

I wouldn’t mind seeing em all

Have a feeling he is running boon duration and 5/30/30/5

Gonna need to see his build for the final detalis

BOTH male and female Phalax armor are beautiful

If you think the female armor is inappropriate you are either taking things too seriously or haven’t realized this is a FANTANSY based MMO. If things were kept realistic there wouldn’t even be 99% of the current content in the game, including the other 4 races.

And its funny if you find the female armor inappropriate where as you have no problem with the CoF or CE armor which has flames coming out of the armor. Im sure that safe and realistic!

Last but not least, I could list you over 20 armor sets which are more ‘realistic" and less revealing for the females but I won’t bother because everyone is aware of the PVP locker by now and whoever is complaining in this thread is honestly doing so because they have nothing better to do at this time

Excalibur.9748:

My guess is healing signet lower HPS but can be improved more with healing power.

Unsuspecting foe moved up.

Was thinking the same.

In addition, adrenaline lost when burst skill misses and CD on cleansing ire OR cleansing ire no longer works when attack misses

yLoon.5289:

Christos de Soufre.3802:

What is Healway?

Stuff .

I’ve always hated WvW.
Never like WvW.

Till i tried this build.
And I owned 3 players together which consisted of Mesmer, Necro, and Ranger.

I don’t know how the duck i did that.
But this build works like magic.

Thanks OP!

Must have faced the worst players in the game then, because a necro itself with the current condi pressure and PoV nerf can wreck the healway build.

And the current warrior’s healing signet can flat out outheal all the DPS this build does.

Its a great build don’t misunderstand, but other classes sustain buff combined with the dmg nerf on retaliation really nullify most of the dmg.

Finnway.2183:

Hunter.4783:

Finnway.2183:

This feedback only represents a small portion of Guardian players.

This small portion is what truly matters,

Uhhh… no? What about the community on Reddit or GW2 Guru? I never commented in this thread, and I disagree with some of the suggestions. Half of them are overpowered, and some of them even break current Guardian builds.

By “a small portion of Guardian players” what I really mean is “less then 30 people.”

Reddit posters can very easily post on these forums, same as guru posters. Guru forums are for the most time dead anyways.

At most you see a few theorycrafters like GK try to tell us how awesome they are for running full Glass cannon and setting clear records in CoFp1 …or lupi

If you want to better chase and probably even finish off some of the better roaming classes get used to running GS/Hammer med build.

Hammer #5+IJ followed by GS burst WILL kill most thieves and squishes assuming their utilities are down, which they should, since they are running from you.

Finnway.2183:

This feedback only represents a small portion of Guardian players.

This small portion is what truly matters,
the rest of the player base is running full PTV staff 0/0/30/30/10 without giving other skills a second thought. For me they are simply mindless drones and will run what is considered “effective” 4 months ago;.

- Clicker
- Terrible reaction time, due to 1) you would spend upwards to 2s standing there looking stupid while reaching for smite condition or contemplation of purity
- clicker
- No solid 1v1 scenariors, all you did was show how 5 people on TS with full food/BL buffs wreck random upleveled pugs
- Clicker

Says the necromancer. Oh im sorry, did you think I would not look at your post history? Necros and engies have NO RIGHT to even post right now.

Im not sure if you devs are aware of this but the unintended PoV (pure of voice) functionality was the only thing which was keeping guardians competitive in this ever so more condition meta.

This change alone cut the guardian cleansing by half and now we have to sacrifice a precious utility slot to even have similar results like before.

SPVP is a fricking joke now, condis are being applied so frequently that I might as well not even bother cleansing them now but sit there and see how fast the necro/engie can kill me.

Im also not sure whether devs play guardians anymore because if they did, this class wouldn’t be reduced to a now mediocre mid bunker/support class. The funny thing is that now warriors and engies can bunker better than guardians while providing a ton more pressure to the party.

Relentliss.2170:

clint.5681:

PoV hit us too hard in WvW, i just experienced it and it frankly makes me not want to play much anymore. Purging flames is not a good enough replacement for condition clearing.

The only thing I will suggest it perhaps trying, as a group, to cycle Save Yourselves and the Meditation Contemplation of Purity. So Guardian 1 uses the 2 skills together and then Guardian 2. etc…

Or if you are pugging, just slot the Meditation as your 3rd skill and use when desperate.

And yeah this was a painful nerf.

About time people are starting to realize how much guardians were nerfed this last patch. The PoV nerf (imma call it nerf, kiss my kitten condi users) literally broke every shout based build in WvW because it cut our condi cleansing by 50%. You cannot rely on shouts now for cleansing and Purging flames by itself is insufficient to do so.

The alternative now, which I have been actively pursuing is meditation based builds. Either run triple meds or pair contemplation of purity with SY for temporary IWIN button during zergs. Triple meds works well enough during roaming anyways

Last but not least, I have been tempted to take the warrior approach, that is melandru runes, lemongrass soup with either a triple med or triple shout setup. During the later I was thinking of tossing in purging flames to put condi reduction to 85%