Guild Wars 2

Ah yes, the coyotes. God kitten coyotes.

Okay guys, here’s the deal. Two weeks ago we were Tier 5. Last week we were Tier 4. This week we’re tier 5. Tommorow we’ll probably be Tier 4. Sense a pattern? Darkhaven is the ultimate underdog. Ever since Rall’s hacking days and massive influx of guilds, Darkhaven’s been struggling to get by. We’ve faced hackers, egos, pugs, time differences… forum suspensions, but none of that stops us. Until now.

We’re stuck. We can’t progress any further. We are the definition of “average” when it comes to servers. Yes we have a lot of crappy players that can’t even read something as simple as Team Chat, but we also have a lot of dedicated guilds willing to do whatever it takes to win. That’s why we keep beating the coordinated Maguuma server. They have coordination, but we have devotion.

But we need more. What we have isn’t enough. The only days when we have queues are on Fridays. I frequently ask myself if DH is even a WvW server.

Dear Darkhaven,

Stop being stupid.

Love, Darkhaven

THE BEAR GUARDIAN

Knockdowns don’t deal a lot of damage. Get Stand your ground. Its a must in tPVP, and very useful in sPVP.

Rhyis.7058:

A level 40 can be tough to kill if you’re wearing all toughness/vitality gear. Most don’t and wear power gear and then wonder why they get gibbed in a second. Well, that’s because 80 gear gives you at least 1 defensive stat. Low level gear doesn’t, unless you decide to gear for it. Sure you’ll be missing out the traits, but you should have access to every skill you intent to ever use. With the increased bonus to low level stats, if you’re wearing green gear at the appropriate level, you should have roughly the same toughness and vitality attributes of an 80 wearing full green gear. Which is more then manageable to play.

Here’s what gets scaled up

Level
Base stats

Here’s what doesn’t get scaled up

Skill point pool
Trait pool
Quality of gear

In other words, if you’re not level 80, you won’t have 70 traits to spend. You won’t have plenty of skills unlocked. If you’re a level 40 using white armor, you’ll be upscaled to a level 80 using white armor in a game where every other level 80 has exotic armor.

Upscaling only helps keep you alive against things like coyotes.

Seraphim.3475:

I realize i’m not going to a power house killer but my point was that commanders make stupid pug like decisions. I think I do pretty good when we have balanced group gruope fight. Like I said I’ve done mostly 15-40 in just Wv3. See ya on the field

There’s two things you need to see. First, is their guild well known? Have you ever seen anyone with that tag before?

Next, look at their following. Are they like Arishock or Ethersin, who typically have 10+ dedicated guildmates following their actions? Are they doing something bold and courageous, like setting up a catapult zerg, or are they acting stupid, like attacking Ogres when they’re on Green?

Danicco.3568:

Human Female, and when I first saw the skills I thought “Wow this looks like those Valkyrie archetypes from RPGs!”

Too bad we can’t use Longbows… but Spirit Weapons feels so fitting, and so does Wall of Reflection, Sanctuary, and all the Sword’s Skills!

Way back when, back before Asura and Sylvari were even playable, I wanted to make a Valkyrie Lenneth setup. Unfortunately spirit weapons were just so bad that I shyed from that quickly. And then the Asura came and I fell in love with them

You hit them until they die.

Yeah, I think the idea is that we’ll work with you guys, but we don’t want to get tied into politics. Consider us self-fulfillment mercenaries.

That doesn’t end the threat. A guardian’s job is to save the land from the darkness. The only thing you’ll be defending is the cemetery of your ally’s bodies. You need to do more than just block it, you need to end it.

pure of voice or soldier runes will remove conditions when you shout.

DH just flipped SM thanks to my precariously placed Trebuchet.

Oh, and 6 golems for the inner gate.

Also looks like DB decided to go someplace besides their own borderland for a change and are actually attacking Mag BL! I guess they’re not in cahoots with each other after all. Guess you guys just really lack a presence anywhere outside your BL.

Jaxon.5392:

and also ask with shield of protection (is that the right name?) and wall of reflection doesn’t stop me getting wasted by arrow carts

Well the issue with those is that they don’t protect against AOE.

And if Sanctuary does (I forgot) it doesn’t protect against AOE that’s currently happening.

All great information so far. Retreat! is also a very nice skill to have, as the aegis can very well nullify a hit that would normally remove half your health while at the same time, for 20 seconds, ensure you move faster than the thief.

If I built specifically for thieves, I would probably use a Greatsword and Scepter. I personally use a GS and Staff though

2 silver to whomever can translate what TheZeus just said.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Kita.7819:

If you’re looking for mobility with Guardians, don’t worry. Between our leaps, warps and swiftness we can outrun even the fastest thieves.

What game are you playing, it sounds really cool. Yeah, that’s sarcasm. Either you are playing against the worst thieves in gw history, or you are making stuff up. There is NO class that can catch a thief. Ele comes close, but that’s it. It doesn’t even matter about swiftness because EVEN if guardian could keep it up full time (goodluck with the guardian swiftness bug) the guardian can have at most 3 teleports. The thief on the other hand doesn’t even have to use his utilities to get one. Now if he does you are already outclassed.

Flashing blade has a shorter range than IA, 600 to 900.
Judge’s intervention has a 1200 range, except the thief also has a 1200 range that breaks stuns, and he can return to it to cure three conditions. His also requires no target, etc.

As for me, Norn. Went human first just for the lore, got him to 80. Norn is about halfway there. Snow leopard is better than any of our current elites (imo). Long stealth, a pretty big dash. Looks amazing also.

So you’re saying that every single thief I’ve met is the worst thief in existence? The symbol of swiftness “bug” isn’t a bug. Leap of Faith when traited can activate every 12 seconds and is affected by speed boosts. In other words, if you have swiftness it covers 800 units instead of 600.

Also, ever heard of pulls and knockdowns? Just because I’m not moving fast doesn’t mean they’re moving faster. Line of Warding, Binding Blade, Bane Signet, Wrath Signet, take your pick.

Stop maxing out zeal and invest in cooldown reduction traits.

8. I’m on this server!

SKuDDer.1860:

@Kita,

Not trying to rain on your parade, but if people closely inspected that screenshot, I counted 7 Up leveled 80’s. As much as I love smashing lowbies, lets be realistic, that wasn’t a fight against geared players.

I only count 3.

Other weapons have different boosts. Only Greatswords can benefit from Zealous Blade for example.

I shouldn’t have to trait my elites in order for them to be good. I don’t trait virtues. My Burn does not deal a lot of damage, my heal is 1/6 of what my Staff’s 16 second Empower heals for and one block is negligible.

the only designs you’ll get from the TP are those from crafts. There are no legendary armor pieces. You gotta go with what you think looks awesome, even if that means wasting time in dungeons. If no one did that, we’d all be humanoid dragons or zombies

Warriors get a skill that blocks all attacks for 3 seconds with a cooldown 1/3 the time of Renewed Focus.

Renewed Focus is hardly elite quality.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_Stance

Looks like either AC or CM.

“You’re dumb. You’ll die, and you’ll leave a dumb corpse.”

I can’t help but compare them to Pyrite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrite

Are Asuran buildings… Grown?

Where else are you gonna get exotics? The only other exotic armors out there are from Crafting, WvW and Karma.

its the Koda armor, gotten from HotW.

Prepare yourself for the worst time of your GW2 life.

Also, I adopted your color scheme Sargent Light. I kinda like it

Dear Dragonbrand:

Please step it up in Maguuma Borderlands. You can’t let us fight your Maguuma force, take the keep and then a couple minutes later expect to re-enter the game. If you want the tower, take it, but unless you defend it we’ll just take it back.

Asura.

Radiation field works very well with our Hammer and Greatsword, since we have so many finishers but few fields. Burning and Poison work well together too.

Pain Inverter works great if you’re going for a retaliation build.

Golem 7-Series is perhaps the strongest summon out there. If you’re a full tank, this guy will deal massive damage on your behalf. If you’re not a full tank, this guy will deal massive damage on your behalf.

Golem D-Series is great if you need to take a break from all the tanking to heal yourself

If you’re looking for mobility with Guardians, don’t worry. Between our leaps, warps and swiftness we can outrun even the fastest thieves.

Assuming we have a target to warp to of course.

Also, when we use Cleasing Flames, Healing Breeze and Zealot’s Defense, we float in the air. That’s pretty cool. And what’s more satisfying than chopping down giants as a little imp, then having them complain on the forums about how “hurdur not being an Asura is a crutch”

I deal around 800-1200 on a basic Greatsword 1st chain slash. Its not that much sure, but as i said elsewhere that damage is going to 5 people at any given time.

That’s also why I’m giving myself more precision and taking use of empowering might.

I’ll tell you what I have now and what I will get soon that will make it better

Armor: Soldier stats. 3 knight accessories including amulet, 2 valkyrie. Sanctuary Runes. Beserker Greatsword. 0/10/30/30/0 with things like two handed mastery, shout reduction, pure of voice and altruistic healing.

What it will be

swap the 2 valk accessories for 2 beserker. Give staff sigil of perception, GS sigil of accuracy. Drop Pure of Voice for Empowering Might, add 6 Soldier Runes to mimic Pure of Voice’s effect.

that must have been one fragile glass cannon.

Guardians can also stand in a fight and win.

Because I’m sure an elementalist can blink into 10+ maggies, destroy them all and still have near full hp.

so I like how the “Darkhaven Ram” Is now a symbol of success. People used to leave it around to troll the server. Now we leave it around as a trophy since we do so well.

i’m looking at more offensive power and am willing to give up some defense.

I’m also looking into soldier runes and empowering might

and yes libraries offer free wifi

true, but there are 5 people i’m attacking. Chances that all 5 will dodge/stability that are slim.

I also pop “Stand Your Ground” Right before that, giving myself stability.

I’ve done similar things. I call it Judgebombing. However, I rather prefer to to judge in, use binding blides, pull it instantly, use whirling wrath and basically focus all the attention on me while causing tons of havoc and chaos.

Glass Cannon builds suck in WvW. They’re easily counterable by any shred of defense.

That being said, its rather hard for a Guardian to go glass cannon since we lack burst. We can dish out just as much dps as other classes, but there’s a difference between dealing 100 damage every second for 5 seconds and dealing 500 damage and having a 5 second cooldown.

But if you were to go that route, I guess a modified meditation build would be best. 10/30/30/0/0. Use a mix of knight and beserkers along with a sword/focus and scepter/torch.

Meditation stuff is all in Valor, Consecration stuff is all in Virtues. Shout stuff is all in Honor, but gets help with Valor. Spirit Weapons are in Radiance, Virtues and Zeal.

Zeal
Eternal Spirit – Spirit weapons are not destroyed when commanded.
Spirit Weapon Mastery – Spirit weapon skills recharge 20% faster.
Wrathful Spirits – Increases spirit weapon damage by 10%.

Radiance
A Fire Inside – Spirit weapons cause burning.

Virtues
Improved Spirit Weapon Duration – Spirit weapons last 50% longer.

Take the Virtue skill and give it to Zeal. Combine it with Spirit Weapon Mastery.

Tweak the Radiance skill to give some random benefit to some other weapon. I’m trying to give the Trident a boost with this skill, but I don’t know how to word it.

Oh hey look what I found

Here’s what should be done.

1) Consolidate all the SW traits into three. Keep them all in two branches, and make it so some of them don’t only affect SWs. For example, Altruistic Healing isn’t made for shouts, but Shouts benefit greatly from it.

2) SW cooldowns should begin as soon as the weapon has been summoned, not when the weapon has left the field.

3) SWs should initiate their finisher at the end of their duration to ensure the player receives their fullest benefit.

Here’s an idea. What if I drop Pure of voice for empowering might, then give myself Soldier runes in addition to replacing the valkyrie accessories with beserker accessories?

Edit: Okay, another new idea.

- Drop Pure of Voice for Empowering Might
- Pick up Soldier Runes
- Swap the two Valk accessories for Beserker accessories (6 crit chance)
- Give my Staff a Sigil of Perception (12 or so crit chance when stacked)
- Give my Sword a Sigil of Accuracy (+5 crit chance)

I could then rock 50+ crit chance, constantly maintain empowering might’s benefit and still be able to remove conditions with my shouts.

Oh and be able to get 70% crit chance with Save Yourselves.

might i request a BUMP

Sigh, you wanna try this a third time? I’ll hit you up later tonight.

I have a great dungeon and WvW guild. Problem is, none of them are too big in PVP which is something I want to do more of. I’m currently Rank 14 and all I play is Guardian. I use a meditation build that works very well in SPvP. I’m trying to get into TPvP right now. I’m willing to adapt and change to a team’s needs. Whatever it takes to win. Hit me up if you’re interested.

Why hello there my exact same SPVP trait build.

The stats I use in PVP come from the Knight Amulet… which unfortunately is not like the Knight stat in pve!

Since this is PVE, I recommend a split of Knight and Valkyrie stats.

In PVP I use Forge runes, though I really should change that.

Since you’re leaning towards high radiance, you should only get right handed weapons. In PVP I go Sword/focus and Scepter/Shield. Since this is is PVE, I would still get Sword/Focus, but maybe go with Scepter/Torch. Hold on to a Shield for WvW though.

Monk’s Focus heals for a little less than 2000.

Protip: Focused Mind is total garbage. Smite Condition takes .25 seconds. Merciful Intervention takes .75 seconds. The other two are already instant. Since Merciful Intervention is trash, you’d only be using it to save .25 seconds. Do not waste a valuable skill slot to save .25 seconds. Get Retributive Armor instead.

Save Yourselves can draw as many conditions to yourself as possible from the nearest 5 people. Sometimes its a non-issue. Other times you can receive 25 stacks of bleeding and die 4 seconds. This has only happened like twice for me.

Yes you can use contemplation of purity immediately after.

The best way to optimize burning damage would probably be something like 20 zeal, 20 radiance and 30 virtues. Do not ever focus purely on burning damage though. Its entirely supplemental.

Here’s a trait build I recommend

Zeal – Fiery Wrath
Radiance – Signet Mastery, Powerful Blades, Right-Hand Strength
Valor – Meditation Mastery, Retributive Armor, Monk’s Focus
Utility – Judge’s Intervention, Contemplayion of Purity, Smite Conditions. Do not use Save yourselves unless you get the shout CD reduction. You can sacrifice retributive armor for that.

Elite: Summon 7-Series Golem (Stay bad human losers!)

Also note: Inner Fire doesn’t occur when you light yourself aflame with that torch skill. Its misleading. What it means is when you’re afflicted with the burn condition.

Guardians either go meditations or shouts. They rarely go both. The default Meditation build is 10/30/30/0/0. The default Shout build is 0/10/30/30/0. I use Meditation in pvp and shout in PVE/WvW. They’re both great.

You need to hit at least twice with the staff for mobs. Don’t use it against vets and champs though.

I too use Pirate runes with a mix of knight and valk armor. Using Explorer armor is asking to be killed. Good job, you have 18% more MF. I’m still killing twice as fast as you.

I can only speak for the weapons I know.

Greatsword

- There needs to be a countdown on the second phase of Binding Blade. Right now all we have is a condition/boon reminder to tell us when the effect ends. I want a visible clock that I don’t have to hover my mouse over to tell me how much time I have left for the condition’s duration. This will help ensure that I get the fullest of Binding Blades, which is to say all the damage ticks AS WELL AS the pull.

Whirling Wrath needs to be touched upon. It says it hits 9 times. It never hits 9 times unless you’re inside the enemy. What it should do is send out 9 pulses that hit in an AOE range. Tweak the damage if necessary, but right now its not living up to standard.

Symbol of Wrath needs to be larger. If I’m facing an enemy in melee range and use the symbol, it results in them standing on the edge. One step backwards and they’re safe from harm. Yes, most of the symbol’s usefulness is due to the retaliation, but the damage is entirely ignored in pvp and wvw. I shouldn’t have to trait symbols to make a skill be 100% effective.

Leap of Faith needs to be fixed. Movement speed effects it for some reason. Thieves using Infiltrator’s Arrow can still warp the fullest distance when crippled and immobilized. Guardians that are crippled cover half the ground (300 units) with Leap. Guardians that are immobilized cover zero ground. At the same time, I am pretty sure we cover more ground if we have swiftness (800 units). I’m willing to lose that boost if it means being able to use this skill to its fullest in combat.

Staff

Orb of Light needs to be able to home into its target. Right now its useless. You don’t even need to dodge it. Move 2 steps left and you’re away from harm. Even with homing, it does need a little boost in speed. Just a little, we don’t want the staff outclassing other weapons.

Empower should be tweaked a bit. Right now it ticks 4 times. Regardless of what happens, if it is canceled early the player receives a 100% cooldown. What I think it should do is have its cooldown increased as the skill goes on. So, lets say you get one tick out but your channeling gets canceled. Your Cooldown is decreased to 25% of its original. By having it in 25% increments, it ensures the skill will not be abusable. Its the same effect regardless, but you’ll only get the heal bonus if you make it last the entire duration. When I use Empower, I use it for the final heal, not 3 stacks of might and immediately stopping due to some knockdown.

Line of Warding. Give it the same property as the knockback traps you encounter after Aldus the Stormbringer’s fight in HotW (path 1). That is to say, knockbacks that cannot be nullified by dodges or leaps. Also decrease the cooldown a smidge.

Allow Wave of Wrath to hit more than 5 foes.

Symbol of Swiftness, and by extent the Mesmer skill Temportal Curtain need to be looked at. If they simply added swiftness duration they could be abusable to maintain perma swiftness. Not good, but whats also not good is how they act now. If the player does not have Swiftness, SoS will give 8 seconds of swiftness. For every second the player stands in the symbol, they will receive another second of swiftness, but at the same time they are using a second of swiftness. They are essentially maintaining their swiftness duration as long as they stand in the symbol. That’s okay. What’s not okay is when the player has less than 8 seconds of swiftness. Instead of reseting the boon to 8 seconds, the player just constantly regenerates 1 second of swiftness every second. What the symbol should do is check the player’s swiftness duration before it does anything. If the player has more than 8 seconds, just give 1 second of swiftness per second. If the player has less than 8 seconds, the first tick should cap the player’s swiftness to 8, and then proceed as normal.

Sword

Zealot’s Defense needs to be tweaked so that the player can change the direction they’re facing. This is not hundred blades, its not capable of removing a player’s entire life bar. Therefore it shouldn’t be punished like it is. Forcing the player to stand still during the skill’s duration makes this skill a joke. I’m not asking to be mobile while the skill goes on. I’m just asking for the blades to actually hit their target. I should face the target while I strike in other words.

Scepter

The autoattack needs more speed. That is all.

Torch

Cleansing Flames needs to heal the Guardian of their own conditions as well.

Sounds very similar to my build. Heavy on Soldier and Knight. What is your secondary weapon?

Personally, I would go 0/10/30/30/0. Why? Look at the Honor Grandmaster, pure of Voice. Whenever you shout, you remove a condition. Not bad. I know you have purity there but… recovering one condition every 10 seconds isn’t so hot. It only takes 2 seconds of immobilization to dig an early grave. Personally, you need something more reliable, especially with your vit so low.

As for the Adept skill in Valor… Well, you can keep purity sure. I usually go with meditation mastery and forget to switch back. I use Judge’s Intervention a lot in WvW. Otherwise, and if I REMEMBER, I like to use Strength of the Fallen. One time I stayed alive for nearly an entire minute while downed. It was pretty funny.

But yeah, again this also depends on your secondary weapon. I use a Staff, so instead of Empowering Might I have Two-handed Mastery. It also allows me to get off more Empowers.