Guild Wars 2

New build and a few new changes coming soon!

Allie Murdock.8152:

I could only see that change making sense once we have new game modes. Otherwise it would just say conquest in a game that is currently all conquest. Either way, I’ll pass it on to the team!

Thanks for the feedback, as always

You’re being trolled…

brannigan.9831:

GS isn’t a great weapon but against good players it’s no worse then Hammer because you will rarely land the best Hammer attack either. I can’t remember the last time I was immobolized or Banished by a hammer user in spvp. Since I like the easy retaliation and blind and binding blade and like two handers I still use GS. FYI, binding blade is not hard to land at all you can kind of queue it up and then use it a few seconds later to make sure you pull people. Stunning Styles one of the best guardian players I’ve ever seen was/is a GS user. Not sure if he still plays. For spvp at least people are exaggerating how bad it is.

Although I respect him SS isn’t a good player and it was entirely one-sided when I played against him (maybe 10 times?). I don’t know what your standards are but if you’re playing against anybody decent Hammer fakes > GS misses.

You’ve hit it on the head. I’ve made many videos on the build so I don’t feel like typing it over and over again.

Kasei.8726:

Speak for yourself, I know how and when to use it, and its always been my favorite weapon on my Guardian. Sure it can be better, but so can everything.

One big reason why I love it is that Binding Blade can find targets that are in stealth. I’ve won against many thieves and mesmers with that alone.

Well when you do fight decent players you’ll find your damage missing entirely. You can come fight me if you wish and you’ll see.

Evalia.7103:

Pfft, with all the animation cancelling it’s just a simple rant out there.
GS has good autoattack chain, 2nd skill is an extra bread for AOE damage, not too good, but yeah – pretty decent damage, 3rd skill is one and the only guardian dash?… long range fast dash that AOE blinds at the end?… 4th is a symbol that provides retaliation, once again somewhat decent – and 5th skill is a pull spell that has a multitude of usages…It’s perhaps the best way to kill an enemy in Skyhammer map in PvP. You can also almost insta-down an enemy when using BB in combination with JI(it’s possible for an enemy to get hit multiple times(up to 5) with BB).
So… overall a very decent and balanced weapon?… Unlike Warrior’s that requires you to stay in 1 place to channel HB and offers no CC whatsoever…
And sword/torch? You’ve just said GS was easy to avoid? sword autoattack chain and 2nd spell are inferior versions of GS dash/autoattack chain respectively, 3rd spell requires you to stand in 1 spot and shoot most obvious projectiles in game…
And torch? Cleansing Flame is a worst spell in the game. It hits ONLY 3 Targets, doesn’t remove conditions from yourself, channels over 5 seconds to do peanuts damage(3.3 damage coefficient over 5 seconds), and is the most telegraphed spell in the entire game.
Zealot’s Fire is pretty good, though. However it has 22.5 second’s cooldown and projectile is VERY slow.
I would really recommend to go with a Focus in your off-hand if you want a one-handed setup. But saying that sword/torch is better than GS is being ridiculous.

Mace

Solstice.1097:

I just started guardian in PvP and looked up a lot of builds and picked one that is very much support – staff/mace+shield with clerics 0/0/10/30/30 shout build.

I don’t see any of your builds that look similar. Is this because of personal preference or is it because in your opinion it is simply not an optimal build?

Both at this stage. For these reasons:

• I generally carry my team and a control build is extremely important for getting the capture point and holding it. The biggest problem other people have, when I see them playing bunker, is that their team just doesn’t control people off capture points with anything except hard AoE cond spam (which a Guardian can deal with easily) so they often a lot of points from having no control.
• You fill three roles as a control Bunker (control, support and Bunker ) which means your team has more of a variety in composition.
• Lastly I prefer utility over heals so knockback res over symbol heals and I also play builds depending on my comp, their comp and the map so quite often I do play staff/sc-sh or staff/hm or staff/mc-sh etc. To me it’s really important to play what’s need and not just heal spam and hope that’ll deal the best with what your enemy is playing.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Hey dude. I’m rather new to guardian but I’ve been running your “God of Kyho” build as I love the Hammer / Sword-Shield set.

.. But I’m sucking.

I don’t seem to do much damage OR able to defend a node very long, and I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing wrong. Any tips or strategies with that particular build?

Maybe post some gameplay I’ll have a look, it’s hard for me to say if I don’t know how you’re playing the build. You should be on the hammer set dodging treb and swapping to shield if you know you can get the knockoff or if you need to teleport up.

Practice dodging and countering control, it’s very important!

Aelle.1723:

Hey Sliven, is the med build viable in WvW and PVE as well? I am thoroughly enjoying the mace+torch/scepter+focus setup!!! I love the burns and burst

In WvW I don’t see why not. I think people want more sustained DPS in PvE though, enemies don’t kite they just sit in your aoe so weapons that spam would be stronger.

Harbinger.8637:

Jax.5261:

Harbinger.8637:

Of course a 0/30/30/5/5 is going to have higher dps ouput, I don’t think anyone is arguing that. The reason why people are running 10/5/30/5/20 because it gives you more sustain then the standard med builds. You have to remember AR also buffs the passive affect on Virtue of Resolve, and factor in Retaliation from your Virtues.

Against what though?
There’s no practical application? You lose against a lot of build you would’ve won against (still assuming you’re using good weapons). Backpoint Mesmer you now lose to, Ranger you can’t beat now, Guardian burst will 1 shot you, AH DPS will outsustain you.
You can’t just make a build to make a build, what are you doing that’s different? The only advantage you’d have would be against a Necro with full LF.

If there was no practical application to the build people wouldn’t be running it, and all those counters you mentioned I never have a problem with. Mesmers will go down to any type of med build for the most part. Rangers are the same way. I have yet to have a Guardian one shot me, but I’m sure that’s just a hyperbole on your part. And an AH will not out sustain you because AH isn’t optimal for 1v1.

Just because a new med build comes along that you don’t agree with, doesn’t mean it’s bad or worse then what came before. If it was truly a bad build or not on par with the other builds, nobody would run it, it’s simple as that. Why would I or any other Guard want to run a bad build? However it’s been tested and people have been using it. It works.

Who though? none of these reasons are actually reasonable and Guards can one shot if they’re running the right weapons.
I think people are just running it because they’re too lazy to explore other options, this isn’t a new build it’s from 2012…

Harbinger.8637:

Of course a 0/30/30/5/5 is going to have higher dps ouput, I don’t think anyone is arguing that. The reason why people are running 10/5/30/5/20 because it gives you more sustain then the standard med builds. You have to remember AR also buffs the passive affect on Virtue of Resolve, and factor in Retaliation from your Virtues.

Against what though?
There’s no practical application? You lose against a lot of build you would’ve won against (still assuming you’re using good weapons). Backpoint Mesmer you now lose to, Ranger you can’t beat now, Guardian burst will 1 shot you, AH DPS will outsustain you.
You can’t just make a build to make a build, what are you doing that’s different? The only advantage you’d have would be against a Necro with full LF.

I help you with editing.

You’re welcome.

And a 530305 DPS build has more condi clear/survivability/DPS than that build too, it has less burst though.

I forgot to add the 303055 has significantly higher burst and accuracy of burst too.

Sorry I don’t see it, I agree with your changes over the original build but Radiant Power > Fiery Wrath already and 15% crit chance > 100 power. The only advantage you gain is the 3 condi clear which I don’t think is that important with a burst build (while you have CoP). The runes and sigils are already optional, except in certain matchups (ie. Ranger, backpoint mes).

I did the maths too and the damage is much lower, the DPS high is lower than the 303055’s DPS low.

Harbinger.8637:

Jax.5261:

Harbinger.8637:

10/5/30/5/20 a large percentage of med guard uses it now. It’s gives you more sustain then the 0/30/30/5/5. It also more useful for team play because of the ability to drop a med for a Concretion, and the extra condition removal from AR. You don’t have to use GS, I just put it there as a filler.

I’m surprised you haven’t seen this build, it’s quite popular.

But you can’t assault sidepoint and you’ll lose to a roamer ….. so why would you run it?

It does all those things fine. Give it a shot, and see if you like it. Like I said it’s quite strange you never seen it before. It’s a popular build this meta, it’s not something I just made up on the fly.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-on-how-to-play-a-Dps-Support-Guardian/first#post3483269

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Itty-Bitty-Bunker-s-DPS-Guardian-Guide-tPvP/first#post3556189

Well 100% can’t deal with spirit ranger, Guardian or engi on sidepoint because you’re running GS. Unless they deliberately don’t dodge WW or ZD. But I’m trying it now.

PS. I literally try every build out that’s put to me, which I’m doing now, because there have been a few times where there have been results theorycrafting didn’t agree with (ie mace damage output). But GS is still an awful choice regardless.

Harbinger.8637:

10/5/30/5/20 a large percentage of med guard uses it now. It’s gives you more sustain then the 0/30/30/5/5. It also more useful for team play because of the ability to drop a med for a Concretion, and the extra condition removal from AR. You don’t have to use GS, I just put it there as a filler.

I’m surprised you haven’t seen this build, it’s quite popular.

But you can’t assault sidepoint and you’ll lose to a roamer ….. so why would you run it?

SoPP.7034:

Jax.5261:

Why not take something from the best MMO of all time, GW1.

Being a GW1 vet I’m not against this either. The fact that were a year+ into GW2 and still playing conquest mode is disappointing.

I mean there are loads of GW1 gametypes we can take and the only one they used was the one they got rid of because it was pretty awful (HB). Why not give us GvG, AB (my 2 favourites by far), FA (the best semi-competitive gametype I’ve seen in an MMO), HA….
FA would be ideal to come first, a place where people can chill out, ideal for pve players to join in and not ruin the match and just a generally really fun game type.

This allows people to have an easier time jumping into competitive matches and competitive players a chance to relax.

Harbinger.8637:

This is the typical guardian med build atm.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR8dlUgSDHHyNEfYFSmiVCBtFUVIewFc9AiioGC-TsAg0CnIYSxkjJDTSmsMN+Y9xGCA

Err no it’s not. In fact I’ve never even seen that before.
Greatsword is the worst Guardian weapon by far, much too inaccurate for tPvP. I would never recommend to make a build just to play against bad players, you’ll just lose to decent/good players more easily.

To OP:
If you’re just starting to learn a burst build I recommend this:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsd7elUgSDHHyKEfIFRuArHA8g+DXw1DIGxGC-TwAA1CnIKSVkrITRyisFNsYZxOiJBA
Which can be improved later by swapping out the 1h sword for a mace and
This:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASWlUgyC33xKEfIFRuAbBYPwYG741DHSRGC-TwAg0CnIySllLLTWyssZNsYZxkgnAA
For a tough DPS build which not only doesn’t go down easily but can deal with a lot of roamers and point defenders. Also extremely good at backpoint/teamfights.

Learrrrrrrrn to doooooooooodge
pleaseeeee

Everytime somebody tells me this and sends me a video of their gameplay or asks me to sit in on a Custom match they’re just terrible at dodging.
Regardless of how decent you think your dodging is, if you feel like you don’t have enough survivability it’s way under par. Practice dodging important skills before throwing away the best bunker build currently available for an easier one to play.

There’s a forum for this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/events

You’ve put this in the incorrect section, this forum is for discussion of tPvP and hotjoins, not events.

Hopefully you can beat Hello Kitty Island Adventures in viewership too, hurray!

Why not take something from the best MMO of all time, GW1.
Seeing as this is a completely messed up sequel to the best MMO why not reverse some of the awful, awful changes?

DanPowers.1096:

This is my current tpvp build. Ahh, meant to pick mace, my bad. AH + symbol heals + mace 2 = yum regen. Yea I guess I am getting pretty greedy. I’d rather my team win than constantly being called the best bunker they’ve ever seen while they drop like flies around me. I still think healing power is useless though.

wot…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/page/5#post3548198

I have a thread here which gives you all the information you’ll need.

Just so you know people use different weapons for different maps. So that has been a meta build for over a year in spvp. But you brought the wrong consecration trait.

Nifhel/Spirit Watch (normal): http://tinyurl.com/kxrkxpg
Foefire: http://tinyurl.com/k835vy8
Khylo: http://tinyurl.com/mpt2fxf
Spirit Watch/Temple (with Mesmer sidepoint): http://tinyurl.com/mmv8eml

Those have been the main builds (with a few changes) for the last year (or since the map was released).

That’s me teaching people how to use the build you’re referring to. I use Virtues A LOT, you can see in my videos (which aren’t that up to date due to problems streaming) they’re used constantly.

edit: I recommend to never use the GS, it’s an awful weapon regardless of how you use it. Too easy to dodge and doesn’t do enough damage, all other weapons are just better.

Ugruk.4069:

How can I get a refund? E-mail A-net?

Send a ticket too support, you’d have to give a reason to why you payed/played your account and why you think you deserve the refund. I refunded my side account even after 6 months (i didn’t play it that much), I assumed there was going to be an E-Sport (since they marketed as such) and bought a second copy of the game to practice on EU too. I got my refund and if you have a valid reason why you deserve one I’m sure your countries consumer laws give you the right for one too.

such smart
very stomp
wow
no cleave exist in this game
don’t control the aoe-cond player/s on the enemy team, they don’t exist
amaze
such dead

Divinity.8041:

AV, AB, WSG.

Why is our ESPORT the equivalent to another MMOs daily grind?

Our Esport is another game’s hotjoin.

I quit this game months ago, but I really had high hopes for it. The only reason people even sort of play it (pve wise) is because there is simply nothing else better. Like Machiavelli said about power, in the end, it comes down to the “Winds of fortuna”

The winds of chance. You got lucky that this industry is in a rut right now, but you owe me my $60 back.

This may be deleted, but just thought I would put it out there.

You can get a refund at anytime.

There’s no honour in video games, you do what you need to do to win, period.
An ‘honour code’ exists when players try to invent their own rules to suit their own advantages.
ie.

• No running or healers in GW1
• No running or ganking in GW2
• No cheese in SC2
• No healing in DS
  the list goes onnnnnnnnnn and onnnnnnn

Your personal rules don’t apply to anybody else, as long as you’re not breaking the game rules (ie. hacking, botting, etc.) then EVERYTHING IS FAIR GAME.

The fact that you came on the forums to say this means you actually DO care about your own personal honour code. You have literally created exactly the same system that you’re trying say is stupid, the irony is hilarious.

It doesn’t actually mean anything to be dishonorable in a video game, I suggest you cease to give a F and less QQ moar Pew Pew.

Brutaly.6257:

brannigan.9831:

In spvp hammer is way too slow there is no way around it.

I have 200 tournements under my belt an 90 % of the matches i used the hammer as main weapon and i never run bunker.

And i disagree.

I’ve played thousands of high rank tpvp matches, I second this.

Why won’t you invite your Fiery Dragon Sword to join this kittening game anymore?!? =(

I don’t agree with this thread at all.
You just have to know how to use the weapon correctly.

No problems, sometimes my thoughts were a bit muddled because I accidentally didn’t record it the first time and I forgot some of my points =P

Okay while it’s uploading to YT here is the raw stream:
http://www.twitch.tv/jaxsilven/c/3584590

Streaming a video response now: http://www.twitch.tv/jaxsilven

Record some gameplay and I’ll give you a full commentary.
A few things I can say straight off:

• Not sure what your build is trying to accomplish straight away, does need some ironing out
• You don’t have to have ZERO conditions on you to live, you just need to know when and which to remove. It’s like in gw1, you didn’t have to have everybody at max hp to be good at monking, infact if you did you’d likely be extremely low on energy. The analogy to gw2 would be that all your skills would be on cooldown.

So just make a quick video of any gameplay and I will comment on the entire thing to help you.

I can carry you.
Give me abyss dyes.

To my understanding an update ArenaNet is working on an update that will make it possible for players to bring the cosmetics from their armour in pvp to pve (and vice versa). Although I think this actually is a good idea once I thought about it I think there is one area they can improve greatly on.
Why not:
Make it so you can only bring over cosmetics from armour and not weapons, this means you can distinguish pvpers and pve’ers in their respective game modes.

Extra bonuses for you (ANet)

• Less to implement
• Happier player base
• It’s a yes from me, you’re going to [insert capital city]!
• ….there was one more but I forgot it. Trust me, it was a good one too

Dynnen.6405:

Jax.5261:

I don’t agree with pretty much anything here, it has a gigantic negative influence on pvp and I don’t see any this helpful. Sorry? I guess.

Thats fine, although I don’t know what you mean by a negative influence. Do you at least agree that the guardian weapons are largely ineffective against a target that isn’t running straight at you or standing still? Because that was the point I was trying to make.

No, watch my videos, you just need to use them well for the skills/damage to land.
The only awful weapon is the greatsword, it’s the only weapon that’s completely underpowered on Guardian.

You’re talking about making actually balanced weapons overpowered, I don’t agree.

Ferik.3127:

Also, seeing my enemy as human making like say Asura voices is….it simply breaks the immersion.

Get your finest straw man arguments here! Just two dollars!

foofad.5162:

Um, most builds have SOME KIND of boon duration. Anywhere from 25-50%. Some even go as high as 80%. At most a 10/25/0/10/25 person is going to miss out on 3.75 out of 10 seconds of vigor. If they run boon duration runes, it comes down to 1.5 seconds. Not a big deal at all.

The game should not (and mostly isn’t) balanced on pve, this is a huge nerf.

I don’t agree with pretty much anything here, it has a gigantic negative influence on pvp and I don’t see any this helpful. Sorry? I guess.

There seems to be a forum section for this kind of stuff:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/events

Please stop spamming the super important pvp forum, thank you.

Arlette.9684:

Scepter definitely not my cup of tea. I’d rather go with sword.

My question being what’s the benefit of having the torch with the mace instead of the scepter (in my case sword) and same question for focus?

I guess I should’ve mentioned I don’t do sPvP almost at all anymore (loads of frustration) and while I find the scepter to be awesome when the target is confined in that small area on the point. It feels lacking in the vast openness that is the life of a wvw roamer.

Edit: Nevermind, half an hour with the sparring NPCs proved that it doesn’t quite work as I would’ve wanted to. Unless the stars align and Jon Peters is whispering in my ear for courage.

It does work, watch some of my videos, I get a lot of 1 shot kills on very good players and have extremely good survivability too. The burst is all AoE too and hard counters many back-point builds.

There are 2 main reasons the torch is with the mace.

• You have to end on Mace to burst, so a full burst is: Sc3+Fc5→(wait 2s)→swap weapons→double tap tc4→mc3+Judge’s+Smite. Won’t work with the offhands swapped.
• Less damage but more accurate bursts are more commonly used such as using SoW + Tc4 and judges with smite. That lands your Zealot’s Flame 100%, if they try and kite you don’t commit with JI and you have an 8s recharge on it. This is most commonly used in combo’s with only players.
  ie. when Ele’s were still good I played duo roamer with my team, it opened up amazing combo’s like RTL>updraft>Chains of Light>Dragon’s Tooth>phoenix>Zealot’s Flame+Judge’s+Smite>the rest of the ele’s combo, etc.

And sword works against specific classes but does a lot worse against others.

Arlette.9684:

I was actually more interested in as a burst option… pop SoW + protector’s and then JI into the target kinda deal. Would that work?

As in if I time my JI with the SoW final second and take a hit on prot strike will they all blow up in the target’s face for Xzillion dmg?

Yes, I’ve posted a Mace burst build on my guide:

Jax.5261:

Mace Burst (Mc-Tc / Sc-Fc) – http://tinyurl.com/p9jab6g
At first a lot of people think the mace can’t be used as a burst weapon, but it has been for a long time in symbol DPS builds. It actually works so well in Meditation burst builds that I don’t even think about running sword anymore. It does more damage, in a smaller amount of time and is harder to dodge. Along with extra blocks and completely AoE. Only negative is that you lose one teleport which could sometimes save you. If you use Zealot’s Fire before the rest of your burst you can land over 18k damage at the EXACT same time. Not too accurate if you do it this way but extremely powerful if it lands.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/first#post1625130

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

this pvp has bigger problem not with the gameplay or mechanic but the QQing of so many players above my comment. if u cant see an asura or having a hard time targetting it. learn to play! and go away stop playing pvp less QQer will attract more players in this community and then the game itself.

It’s not a learn-to-play issue, sorry. Your gameplay isn’t up to the level where you actively dodge skills correctly. Just because you do not understand the problem at hand does not mean it doesn’t exist.

2/3 strikes* on SoW
It promotes slightly less spammy play this way.

Neverminder.3296:

I’ve had the most fun with the mace/triple med build so far, but all of these are pretty great.

I find the “best dps build” hammer/staff kind of unwieldly, but I think that is just owed to how underwhelming guardian hammer can be.

I’m not sure what you really mean by that, you can have a look through my videos and see how I use it effectively or give a more detailed description of what you mean and I can help you use it better.
The hammer is unrivaled in control and has the highest effective damage for a 2h weapon, on Guardian.

…you still allow Asura in competitive play. Is this because:

• You still don’t understand it’s a problem?
• You don’t know how to fix it?
• You thought people would eventually stop complaining?

The only thing left is you legitimately think there’s no problem with it (which is silly) or you have something to gain from it (which makes no sense)

Obvious solutions:

• Make Asura much bigger
• Give an option to make all enemy character models human (so on there own screen they have whatever animation miniaturization they wish while on yours they can be seen) <— this is the obvious choice
• Add cast bars, goes against your game ideal but you’re not leaving us with any options here

I have absolutely no clue why this isn’t addressed yet, many of us saw this problem before the bloody beta started.