Guild Wars 2

Psiborg.2983:

Yeah I play a more defensive style in general. I’m more of a boon master while healing myself and trying to take the hits. I use shield and mace when I can risk the melee encounter, otherwise scepter. Purity is not an option for me, because this trait skill is reserved for “Strength in Numbers”, which is just too useful to leave it out. I haven’t tried out torch at all so far, but I hear it’s quite nice while you’re questing. As for dungeons, I think someone has to take the hits tho, and I think guardian is the most suitable class for that with all those defensive/supportive traits. I think I should try out torch and see how the condition removal is working out for me, at the expense of a good amount of toughness.

Concerning WvWvW btw, Scepter/Shield + GS is just a huge choo choo mothakitten effect on the enemies. Run in, pull them all towards you, into your allies, see them all drop like flies. Scepter for another root.

The build I run is designed to be the one taking the hits, so it still supports that function. While using Cleansing Flame from the offhand Torch make sure you strafe around the enemy and always try to line up at least 1-2 group members to get them in the cleansing effect. Also for encounters that are very condition heavy you can jump into the middle of your group, cast Cleansing Flame and just spin in a circle, one touch of the flame is all it takes to take off a condition.

I used a mace for a while and enjoyed the defensive aspects of it greatly! I do find the Blind effect from the Sword to be superior in keeping myself alive, negating a hit from a boss every 10 seconds is pure gold! You also have more ranged options with a sword for those encounters that you need to move back from a PBAoE, or when the boss places himself in an area that you can not melee him. In fact the only attack that a sword has that requires you to be in melee range is the auto attack.

Thead.2139:

The Necromancer…. because hes my Main :p

There can NEVER be too many necromancers … they are such an amazing support class!

Psiborg.2983:

Instead of going for the offensive trait lines, you could also go for Valor and Honor and use Pure of Voice together with some shouts to solve that condition removal problem. Then again, I don’t know if you’re affected by Pure of Voice too, or just your allies. As for the rest, looks quite interesting and yes, the aegis bit would still work, also with the Valor trait line you get another aegis when you reach 50% health. Just an idea tho.

Edit: Then with the Honor and Valor traits, shield is ofc more or less a must for the +90 toughness.

Thanks for the added information, I like the idea of taking the additional Aegis at 50% health. The trait is called Valorous defense, and only requires 5 points. I still shy away from taking a skill to remove conditions, as I have very little problems with conditions with the group I run with. But if I were to take something to help deal with them, you could go 10 points into Valor and take Purity, which removes a condition every 10 seconds.

As far as the +90 toughness, that is an amazing trait, but requires a shield. I much prefer a torch offhand for the skill Cleansing Flame, not only for a very decent chunk of damage, but because it removes conditions from my group members, and is only on a 15 second cooldown.

vicious.2193:

Looks like it will play well for brief 1-on-1s and general “questing”, but you’re ignoring conditional removal which is imperative in dungeons (and sPvP from what I’ve heard). Aegis rocks, yes, but when you have a 60 second poison on you and no conditional removal, you’re going to die.

You make a great point. I primarly play with some friends and my wife. There are quite a few condition removers that they use that have area effects. I also use a Torch as my offhand, which removes conditions from allies every 15 seconds in a cone AoE.

I am a firm beliver that a good min/max group will have the ranged classes take condition removers, as the melee classes require a great deal more defenses to survive. I would not however expect this to happen in a PUG. So if you are a solo player then yes … Take the Signet heal at the very least to remove a condition every 10 seconds.

Sometimes players find games that just do not fit well with them. I am sorry you have had a bad experience with GW2. I however am having a great time with this game, and enjoy the PvP (I hated the PvP in GW1), PvE content is just amazing, the game runs smooth and just feels right to me … not clunky in the least. The combo of skills between classes is what really keeps me going. Using a set group of friends through a PvE dungeon, or in WvW content is just amazing! I could go on and on about the different aspects of this game that I enjoy, but you do not want to hear all that.

Maybe this game just is not for you?

So I have read quite a few posts here, and on other forums about how Melee classes get the shaft. I only speak from experience from the viewpoint of a Guardian, but with the correct setup, I can stand toe to toe for a great deal of time, even against boss mobs that will one-hit kill me.

After a great deal of time rearranging my skills, I have settled on a pretty decent combo that works for me (maybe not for you, but I find it helpful).

1. Equip a Sword
—- This is primarly because of the Blind effect from the skill Flashing Blade. This skill will allow you to negate a single hit every 10 seconds.

2. Take the skill Retreat!
—- This skill will grant you Aegis, and Swiftness. This should be saved for when you are unable to blind your target, and when you do not currently have Aegis active.

3. Take the skill Shield of the Avenger
—- This skill on it’s own is lackluster, but with the trait Eternal Spirit (20 points into Zeal) you can command the shield every 15 seconds to apply the Weakness condition, which reduces the damage the mobs are doing by 50% (non-crit) for 6 seconds. You can apply Weakness this way 2 times every 60 seconds (more if traited)

4. Take the heroic skill Renewed Focus
—- This heroic skill will allow you to be immune to all damage for a few seconds, AND reset the cooldown on your Virtues. Use this skill after you have exhausted your Virtue of Courage for the Aegis boon, to apply it again.

Let me take a moment here to discuss the boon Aegis:
—- The Aegis boon provides you with a magical sheild that will absorb a single hit. Guardians have a passive ability within Virtue of Courage to maintain Aegis until hit, and will recycle every 40 seconds, BUT if you toggle Virtue of Courage directly after the first one is taken away it will grant you an additional Aegis boon. THEN once that Aegis is taken away you can toggle Renewed Focus to reset the cooldown of Virtue of Courage, giving you back your passive Aegis, AND the ability to toggle it again for another Aegis … thats a possible 4 Aegis boons, quite an amazing defensive ability. On top of that the Retreat! skill grants you a 5th Aegis! Toggling Virtue of Courage also grants the Protection boon every time for your group if you go 5 points into Virtues. This reduces all damage by 33% for the duration.

5. Take the trait Blind Exposure.
—- This will allow you to apply the Vulnerability everytime you blind your target. Taking this trait will also get you the prior minor trait Justice is Blind, which will add the Blind effect to ALL nearby mobs everytime you activate Virtue of Justice. Combined with the Elite skill Renewed Focus you can use this ability twice every 30 seconds.

6. Take the heal skill Shelter.
—- This skill heals for quite a bit less than the Signet heal, but it has the added effect of Blocking all incoming attacks until the heal goes off. This lasts for 2 seconds, so if you time this right between your Aegis cooldowns it can act as a great defensive filler.

So lets RECAP:
As a Sword guardian you can:
-Apply blind every 10 seconds with Flashing Blade
-Apply blind every ~15 seconds with the trait Blind Exposure
-Apply Weakness to mobs in an AoE twice per minute for 6 seconds each (thats 20% upkeep[more if traited])
-Grant yourself the boon Aegis about 6 times 60 seconds
-Grant yourself the boon Protection twice every 90 seconds
-Take the heal skill Shelter for 2 seconds of Blocking every 30 seconds.

I would also highly recommend you focus on Conditional Damage and take traits that boost the Burning condition. It may even be a good idea to take the skill Sword of Justice. You are already going to have the trait that allows you to Command your spirit weapons without destroying them, if you take the trait A Fire Inside your Commanded sword will cause the Burning condition to all enemies in an AoE around it. The damage from this build has been quite good, and I have rarely died. Just keep in mind you still have to do a lot of moving around and when you run out of defensive abilities, back up for a few seconds, then get back in there when things start to recycle.

Please keep in mind that while this build may work very well for me, it may not for you … but it sure is fun to set things on fire and be nearly invulnerable in melee range while my defences are up!

Wait Time: Exactly 72 hours as of this post

Ticket Number: 120905-000964

Description of what happened: My account was apperently hacked. I had some issues with account security in the past with Diablo 3, and foolishly used the same e-mail and password. I have since changed my password, and installed “Avast!” which has some really amazing password protection tools. It also found an amazing 11 Viruses on the initial sweep of my machine, and 4 more in the boot sector sweep which when I googled their names, they popped up as a type of misdirection virus, which would take me from the site I was trying to goto (such as the official Diablo 3 Forums) to a look-alike site and record my login information, where the submit button was mearly a link back to the real site … darn sneaky hackers!