Guild Wars 2

A few more things I forgot to include in the first post.

1. My runes were all chosen for boon duration. Since I use so many shouts and try to get boons as much as possible, I might as well take advantage of them

2. I know I do not have a ton of healing power which is definitely a weakness. Another huge weakness is condition removal

3. I am spoiled by perma-swiftness

I probably forgot about other things but will update as I remember

Hey guys. Have leveled and played several classes so far and about 1-2 months ago decided to try out the guardian. Have been loving it since. Definitely took a little while for me to get used to after playing a DD ele, but am starting to get the hang of it and think I am going to put my first legendary on him.

Before I started playing the guard, I tried to read up a lot about different builds, weaponsets, pros/cons, etc. I initially started with a 0,0,30,20,20 standard AH build. Then I tried out a 0,15,30,20,5 build which I actually enjoyed playing more however realized that the traits I took in the radiance line were awesome for PvE but less helpful in WvW. I have been toying around with my build a lot recently and have ended up running a 10,5,30,20,5 build. I was just looking for some feedback or ways I might be able to improve because to be honest, I have little idea what I am doing

Build link:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQJARWlUgiC33xKEfYFRuAbBVF4HmCMmxrHU0hME
(copy -> paste link if it does not work)

So a little about my armor/jewelry, runes, traits and rationale

Armor: Running a full set of AC armor with P,T,V
Jewelry: Running all berserker stat
Back: Guild backpack with P,T,V for now until I can get the fractal backpiece
Runes: 2 superior rune of the monk, 2 superior rune of the water, 2 major rune of the water

Traits:
Zeal (10): Wanted the little boost in power and love having trait III to reduce falling damage in WvW
Radiance (5): Did not want to get rid of the AOE blind on VoJ, especially for a little damage mitigation as a frontline guardian
Valor (30): I love shouts (see below about boon duration) and AH gives them an additional bonus. Trait VI to boost percision and trait V because I was not very interested in anything else and one of the weaknessess of this build is condition removal
Honor (20): Trait IX because I have a 2 handed weapon on both sets and love having all skills but especially GS2 recharge more quickly. Trait II because I love shouts
Virtues (5): I could not get rid of Inspired virtue because (1) I am trying to keep boons up and (2) as a bonus with AH

Weapons I am using are greatsword and staff (in general, obviously switch out weapons depending on situaiton but GS is always there). Greatsword because I am working on Twilight and it is versitile and staff because Staff4 is awesome, I cant give up staff3 for roaming and staff5 has been great for dd eles who think they can just duck out when they are in trouble

Again, I know that this is not a new build and is just a variation on the popular AH builds. Just trying to get some feedback on how I might be able to improve. I have been toying with the idea of taking the 5 points out of radiance and virtues and putting it into Zeal for the extra power + GS power however have been very reluctant to do so because I love the 5 point traits in those lines so much.

Thanks for the feedback ahead of time and if I was unclear about something, just let me know!

Haha sorry i worded the question wrong – what do you think the chances are of them eventually implementing this

Hey all. Just thought I would start a little speculation thread. What do you all think the chances are of having a small chance for precursors to be found in black lion chests?

Agreed. If you like tanky characters and ranged combat in PvE, consider leveling a necro

Haha can someone please make a score update for forum posts by server?

I know this sounds crazy, but after running AC so many times to get PVT gear, I actually started to have fun running it and trying to become more efficient, teaching new players, etc

Every time i am frustrated with WvW or am sick of working on my legendary, I come back for a quick AC run

What they should really have as an elite is sigil of the stealth. Passive is stealth, active is stealth and invulnerability.

Sorry sarcasm doesnt come across in posts :-p

Hey guys…. was just thinking about this and wanted to know if I am missing something. It seems like confusion is WAY more powerful than retaliation for 2 reasons

1. The damage caused by confusion is much higher
2. Confusion does not require that you hit anything, let alone the person who confused you

Am I missing something here? Or is it a balance thing and if retaliation hit higher, it would be OP?

John Widdin.9618:

I’m talking in a WvW perspective, where I recently just faced 6 d/d Elementalists at the same time. One guild, roaming group. spiking down single targets at a time, while they themselves require a huge amount of effort to kill from the various invulnerables, and escape/gap closers.

I run around with a myself a mesmer, Guardian, Thief, Engineer, and a support ele or ranger.

We are all in the same WvW tier (I’m DB) and I can tell you that the group that you ran into was likely members of the all-ele guild on FA. The guy who started that guild is the guy who popularized the DD bunker build and has insane skills on that build. My guess is that the group you ran into is extremely organized with extremely good players.

The DD build can be very strong but being on both ends of things (currently my main is guard), it can be countered as people have mentioned above. Just remember that regardless of the class, my guess would be if those guys learned a class as well as they know ele and were as organized as I think they are, they would have the same effect

Vavume.8065:

I think pre cursors being in the 500g range is fine, the fact that they were ever cheaper is more of a problem in my view. Legendarys should be hard to make, everything is pretty easy to obtain so there needs to be something that is difficult about it, and thats where the high priced pre cursor comes in. I hope they remain high and Arenanet never start handing out welfare precursors, because the day every causal has a legendary will be sad day.
I’m sorry if this sounds elitist, I do not mean it to, although I know many will take it that way, I just have a firm view that legendarys should actually be hard to obtain.

I think that the point that a lot of people have been making is what it is that makes the legendaries hard to obtain. There are aspects of it that require committment and playing, aspects that require luck and aspects that require money.

Even if A-net handed out precursors, not every “casual” would have a legendary because they would not be able to make the gift of mastery (cant just buy obs shards, BoH, bloodstone shard or world exploration) or the gift of luck (cannot just buy obs shards for the gift of luck).

The problem a lot of people have with the legendaries is the fact that the precursors, but more importantly the legendaries themselves, can be bought with real world money through gems. There is nothing “hard” about obtaining a precursor. I am old and have a job. If my wife wouldnt kill me, I could buy a bunch of gems and have a precursor right now. I could buy a bunch of gems and have a LEGENDARY right now. The 16 year old kid kicking my kitten in WvW who can dedicate 1000s of hours to the game and has actual skill may never get even a precursor but I can buy a legendary. That doesnt make obtaining a legendary hard in the sense that you need skill to obtain one.

@daphoenix

Clearly it wouldnt work in many build because it is a class specific elite, but what do you think about humans using reaper of grenth as an elite? I currently have glyph of elementals as my elite but realize that I am rarely using it. Maybe I just have to learn to play and start using it more, but reaper of grenth seems like a pretty good skill to have in WvW when i am rtl-ing into a zerg to break the line

What would happen if you made a new guard with the exact name of your deleted mesmer?

Haha.. OP deleted the original post. I have been lurking the forums at work. The first post was a link to a build but its gone now o.O

That is awesome man, thank you for the advice. Much appreciated

Ill jump onto WvW after work today and try some of those skills out to start to learn to really play the class

Hey all. After getting several characters to 80, I have decided to roll a Guard. To be honest, the main reason I wanted a Guard was so that I can deck him out in white knight looking gear and equip Twilight. The other main reason I am interested in Guardian is boons. My current main is a DD ele and I love the ability to apply boons to myself and my party.

I guess my main question is the best way to make my guardian as mobile as possible. Now, I know he will never match the mobility of my ele but I do like being able to break lines in WvW and I have heard that guardians can be pretty good at that. Is there a good way to jump in, break the line to open it up for the rest of the team to flow in and jump back before being put down?

Thanks ahead of time for the help!

I play a dd ele. Necros are actually a pretty scary class for us. One of the things to realize is that bunker DD ele build rely on boons. That being said, a decent counter to a dd ele would be along the lines of:

1. Cast corrupt boon. Will completely disable the ele if he is booned up
2. He will probably switch to water attunement to try to get rid of all his conditions, thats okay
3. As soon as he switches (theres an animation), use dagger 3 to immobilize
4. Again, he will probably somewhat freak out and use water 5 to get out, if he already hasnt
5. As soon as that happens, use fleshy’s knockdown and go to town

Out of left field but I still like the idea of any class using any armor but with movement penalties…

When you start to become legitimately sexually attracted to your female toon

Raf.1078:

I love reading the mindset that seems to say…“If I die, it must be the class, cause its surely not me…therefore all classes but mine should be nerfed”

Those mindsets permeate gaming forums.

They make me laugh.

Agreed. Guess what, ill give some personal disclosure. The othe night I ran in on a necro who had just stomped someone. My guess is that a good number of his skills were on cd. I ran in perfectly fresh with my ele. We went back and forth but he ultimately had fleshy knock me down, threw a well and went to town until he kicked my kitten

Guess what. He was better than me. Get used to it, a lot of people will beat you. Learn and move on

It feels like the same garbage in the forums every day. Sure, there might be a good number of eles but I don’t feel the percentages are as skewed as people with an agenda make them out to be. Sure I might be biased because look at my sig – I play an ele. But, I have put most time into my necro and never thought eles were op. if anything, were annoying because we fly around the wvw field like kittenes but we don’t cause that much damage if spec for survival.

At least for me, one of the reasons I love ele is that it is fun to play and you don’t end up just spamming a couple skills

From my necrosis standpoint, some classes could probably use a buff. It does however get kind of old to see thread after thread calling to nerf this class or nerf that class because someone is salty that they died

When I got my map completion, I decided that that was all I was going to focus on and skipped out on wvw (other than for world completion) and dungeons. After naturally leveling to 80, it probably took 2 weeks of casually playing after work with more playtime on weekends

Oglaf.1074:

Lets not ignore the elephant in the room any longer:

AoE isn’t the problem.

Elementalists are the problem.

Soloing parties full of people with their D/D bunker build.

If you’re running with a party, use some coordination and cc the kitten out if the ele. Eventually all the breaks will be in cd and you can burst em down. Or, have one necro cast corrupt boon. Or, switch to range. Or, have a couple people knockdown.

Please note I’m only talking about wvw, but dd bunker eles are flashy. They throw off your group/Zerg while other classes burst people down.

Devs, please take note of the community response on this one. There isnt one group of players who are yelling NERF and another who are yelling BUFF. This isnt a class vs class issue. All around, the overwhelming response is that nerfing AOE is a bad idea. Nobody wants it or thinks it is necessary. Please just take that into account.

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. No, make certain builds more powerful rather than nerfing viable ones
5. Please rethink this one. It just doesnt make sense. I dont play PvP, so I cant comment on AOE balance there, but in PvE and WvW there is nothing OPed about AOE. If anything, certain classess could use a buff.

Maybe I’m just completely biased but 2 of the major nerfs they mentioned will (bunker ele on radar) and will likely (aoe nerf) affect elementalists directly. It make no kittening sense. Is it just a pvp thing? Am I crazy?

For a while people were complaining about the bunker ele because it was new. Now they dont because they learned to counter. I have NEVER thought or been told that a staff ele aoe is op. Guess what, the counter for stealth thieves is aoe. Lets nerf! I have friends who faceroll guardians and warriors with starter gear and traits in wvw and hold their own. That would never work with even dd ele.

I know I sound frustrated because I am. Who decided these nerfs are necessary and why? And I can only imagine what aoe nerfs will do to kittening classes like the necro

Haha I just don’t get the likely bunker ele nerfs. Granted, I am now playing a dd ele but for the majority of the time I have played a necro as my main and never once did I think dd ele was overpowered or impossible to counter, as opposed to several other classes builds.

Hopefully the nerfs won’t break the build

I dont think there will, or should, be any significant nerfs to dual dagger bunker builds. It is working the way they intend according to the class philosophies:

Ele
We see the elementalist as the king of versatility. The skill ceiling for the Ele is exceptional, as the ability to leverage all four attunements at the right time is crucial for understanding the elemetnalist. The Ele boasts some of the best team support and control abilities in the game, as well as some great area of effect damage.

If you faceroll, you cannot play this build. If you have one rotation and dont understand the skills in each attunement, as soon as that rotation is broken you will die. I cant comment on PvP becuase I do not play PvP but this build seems to work well for PvE and WvW. I do well alot. I also die alot. I am nowhere near the most skilled player nor the least skilled player.

I thnk anet gets that DD ele synergy of traits and understanding the class is what should ultimately be available for every class

styx.7294:

There’s already an inherent speed buff for being outside of combat

Haha yeah, but it still feels way too slow

All classes should get 25% run speed buff with no signet outside of battle. Just to move around the world a little more quickly but to still encourage exploring.

In battle, classess with lighter armor should be able to move more quickly than those with medium armor who should be able to move more quickly than those with heavy armor

DJRiful.3749:

Here is my look, like a sir.

I love it and want to copy so bad. I know the shoulders are arah and legs are SE but what sets are the other pieces from and what colors are you using?

It also depends on how you are testing it. If you have elemental attunement, you gain swiftness when you swap to air. If you are swapping to air then testing the shock aura, the swiftness from EA and the shock aura might stack and appear to give the shock aura a longer swiftness duration

Hey all. Just thought this would be a fun topic. I know there are a lot of WvW commanders who come to this forum and was just wondering what your prefered profession is and why. Are there certain professions that are more condusive to being a commander (e.g. bunker guardians because survivability might be a little better) or is it all really just personal preference?

p.s. I am not asking because I want to become a commander. (1) I have no WvW skill or strategy and (2) you guys work hard and it is much appreciated to members of the zerg like me

Icetx.6403:

No cool down? … question then, how is he able to use churning earth twice in under 10 secs when there is a 30 sec cool-down on it. He uses churning earth, followed by ring of earth, then churning again. Is there a something the lessens the cooldown time on that? and casting time?

It’s evasive arcana in earth attunement

Hey guys. About a week ago I went from a condition build to a dual dagger power build and have been playing around with DS a lot more. Thought it would be interesting to throw up this topic and see what uses people have found for DS and maybe see if we can share ideas with each other.

So far I have mainly used it for:

1. AOE damage, primarily in dungeons – there’s nothing more satisfying than dropping some marks, dropping my wells then popping into DS4 to take out a group of mobs

2. Countering glass canon thieves in wvw – I picked up the Spiteful Spirit trait so I get a few seconds of retaliation when switching into DS. This has been very helpful when ambushed by a thief in wvw – my health pool stays relatively preserved and I do some damage before getting my bearings

3. Dagger 1 -> DS1 – just to do a little more dps but the main place I do this is in dungeons. Run in, drop my wells, hit with dagger 1 to build up LF, roll out and ds1 until 50% LF, rinse and repeat

4. Occasionally as an ‘oh kitten’ button but in my experience this only really works when you are waiting for the heal cooldown and need a couple extra seconds. Whenever I have just used it a ‘I am going to die now, oh kitten’ button, I end up dead

Of course there are other uses for it, some of which I know, many of which I don’t but thought I would share what I am currently using it for the most and hope others will do the same so we can give each other ideas

I might be in the complete minority by saying this, but shouldnt base movement speed have something to do with the type of armor you wear? Heavy armor makes you move more slowly, medium armor medium speed and light armor the fastest?

I’d imagine there is some flaw in my logic so let me know :-p

Hey guys, have never posted in the guild forum here but just wanted to let everyone know about a relatively new guild that we have formed, [SYN]. We were previously part of a larger guild who we still have alliances with but our guild leader decided to start her own guild and many of us have followed.

We are a friendly, 18+ age guild on the Dragonbrand server. Right now, we are primarily focused on teaching new players the ropes with dungeons but also spend a good amount of time in WvW. As the new players start to level and become more comfortable with the playstyle, we will be doing much more WvW and PvP as well.

Everyone in the guild is friendly and the guild leader, Kyley, is extremely nice and willing to help anyone out at any time. We are looking for any type of player, from someone who just picked up the game to converts from WoW or other MMOs to GW2 experienced vets with legendary weapons who simply want a good group of people to chat to while playing.

If you are interested, please post here or send me an in-game mail and we will get you set up as soon as possible. Hope to hear from some of you!

Wow, thanks for the responses everyone. It seems like a general consensus is that weapon swapping scepter/dagger and staff ends up building up conditions to best make use of epidemic. I am too lazy for weapon swapping so for now am thinking about doing:

BiP, poison cloud, dagger 5, scepter 2, epidemic, consume conditions

I know it’s probably not highest yield but it theoretically seems like it would work well

Hey everyone! Just had a question about mobs and epidemic with the goal of making my leveling more efficient. I know that epidemic can be a very powerful tool spreading conditions to multiple enemies in the area but was wondering if there was any particular combo to make it work most efficiently. Is there a particular skill/chain of skills I should generally use prior to casting epidemic to cause more total damage? As of now, I have been casting grasping dead then one full cycle of skill 1 (for bleed and poison), then epidemic but imagine that there is probably a better combo out there.

Right now I am level 50 but ultimately plan on putting 30 into Spite, 30 into Curses and 10 into Blood Magic.

Thanks for all the help ahead of time!

Does ritual of life work with it? It would be awesome if you could get ranged revive plus extra healing

Hey everyone, new to the forums here but just had a question about the signet of undeath. I am only in the 40s right now and have not yet done a dungeon with my Necro (have done them with my 80 warrior) but it seems like the active effect of this signet (revive 3 allies in target area) is pretty powerful.

Was just wondering what people´s thoughts on this are. I guess if you have good strategy there should not be as much need to revive but at least in my experience, there are a hell of a lot of deaths in dungeons if you dont have an experienced team.