Guild Wars 2

Epic.3950:

alternatively
“GTFO BRO”
blast combo finisher that blows out all enemies in range over 3x the range of stomp

Fus…RO DAH!!

While you don’t technically HAVE to, it is smart to have at least one of those utilities for projectile heavy fights (first thing that comes to mind is the imbued shaman fight / disco asura fractal.) I can’t really say why they wouldn’t use those skills, but it’s just one of those things that people learn over time why it’s so handy. Sometimes forcing people to use it will turn them off to using it.

Indoles.1467:

Two issues I see off the bat.

1. No where do I see a build, just weapons. This quickly leads me to believe it works as a moderately skilled player vs bads since any good player will show a build and be able to explain the synergy.

2. Axe 5 is terrible in zvz warfare at t3 and up as the way to win these fights is to keep up movement, stability, and heal stacks. (Making one useless skill on the offhand axe). Axe main hand isn’t bad, but I find a weapon evade practically mandatory on most ranger builds.

You ever try using it when enemies are trying to hit you from ranged? I’ve seen damage counters flying up just from spinning in place in zvz. Granted ground targeted aoe’s don’t do anything, but with the right timing you can really mess some people up. Also you can reflect a thieve’s daggerstorm right back into his face, since a projectile can only be reflected once.

Think the whole reason for the tiered #1 damage is to encourage weapon swapping when enemies are close by. While not a fan of bows, I do think that it’s a cool idea…shame that tier system isn’t across the rest of the longbow skills (would make longbow #2 super deadly at max range)

Only a WvWer will comb through the list from the dailies / monthlies to see what they can accomplish in the battlegrounds only.

Think with regards to removing conditions meditation builds do it way more efficiently, but as a group support condition removal that’s a pretty good build!

Sandra Martino.3870:

That said… scepter is viable in pve and useless in pvp/wvw. Check page 2/3 on a thread with a name “Scepters broken autoattack”. Even has a dev in it that claimed to check it out.

Scepter’s autoattack is pretty whacky don’t get me wrong, but it is in no way useless in pvp. A kitten near insta-cast immobilize, and a very fast recharge ground aoe is invaluable at making people panic and use up dodge rolls so you can land your other moves. I’d take scepter over staff any day of the week for both pve and pvp.

Burnished steel or lead for the metal, and midnight ice for the cloth.

Ronako.2315:

Cavendish.2168:

Maybe you just dont like playing as a guardian. If you tried twice and quit both times then why not try another class?

Also, different weapons have different uses. Some weapons I didnt like as much until I come to a situation that it is perfect for, then I realize how cool the weapon is and that each one has its place.

I’ve tried different classes. I dunno, I really like the idea of the Guardian, just not the weapons/skills.

I like the idea of being able to turn the tides of a battle, but still be viable in a small scale fight. I’ve tried every single class, and this class seems a little more capable of doing so. I mean, I would play a thief, and it’s not exactly that people hate it that keeps me away, but other than a shortbow, I’m useless in a battle.

When I tried the engineer, damage output was mediocre for the way I wanted to play it.

Warrior, well, apparently their traits suck and they struggle in pvp/wvw.

Elementalist, it’s kind of what I’m looking for, a jack of all trades, but I’m not too big on being a mage..

Mesmer, scholar version of a thief pretty much xD

Necro, I HATE condition damage.

Ranger, I would actually really love the ranger, if half the damage output didn’t come from their pet.

Maybe I just don’t like the classes to this game altogether, but I really love this game. xD I wish their april fools character commando was real. x_x Sorry for just kinda spammin the forums with walls of complaining text.

Try using a meditation build for your Guardian. Judge’s Intervention, smite condition, and contemplations of purity with monk’s focus not only heals you for 2k when you use them, but 2/3 utitilies break stuns, 2/3 cure conditions, and Judge’s Intervention is a blink you can use while channeling another skill. As for that feeling of turning the tide of a fight, NOTHING beats using judge’s intervention while channeling ring of warding on the hammer so that you effectively block a good chunk of people in your ring while creating a chokepoint for those out of it. That leaves your group with a very easy opportunity to blanket the area with AoEs. Also hammer #3 is great for keeping multiple people pegged in a spot for chasing / escaping.

I have that trait that increases damage by 10% when an enemy is burning, so typically I activate it either once an enemy has dropped below 75% hp in pvp, and/or right before using my scepter / torch combo. The #4 on torch adds to the burning duration of the VoJ activation so that’s a whole lot of free damage for me.

I’m a personal fan of the hammer (awesome CC and a reliable 4s cd blast finisher), scetper + torch (low cooldowns and good skill chain setup for both weapons), and sword + shield (high mobility / sustain). Like Cavendish said though it really depends on the playstyle you want to achieve, which will determine the type of situations you’ll be in in wvw the majority of the time.

Roo Stercogburn.9671:

Olvendred.3027:

lol, yeah. “Become even deadlier in The Mists with new World vs. World abilities like Burning Oil Mastery”

Best laugh I’ve had in days.

If mastery changes the range on it, its potentially some ouchness. But yeh, probably its just going to be increased damage on empty spaces where nobody stands until the oil is destroyed.

Or maybe a trait where the oil flows down in a line for _ meters? That’d be very handy with keeping the actual gate site clear.

Awesome idea using line of sight to protect your spirits in dungeons!

Cufufalating.8479:

Looks pretty cool, glad you’re enjoying your ranger My only comment on the build is that skirmishing II is a truely aweful trait. The bleed it gives lasts only 1 tick, and since you arent even a condition build it adds very little to your build. Try looking at I or IV as they will probably be much more useful.

Yeah I’ve been contemplating of changing out the chance to bleed trait for the increased pet movement trait so my pets will be able to stick onto players easier in pvp. Thanks for the input! =D

Thanks for the feedback all! I really am enjoying my ranger quite a bit, don’t know why I didn’t make one sooner!

That was kind of amazing to watch lol, bravo sir!

At least with Zhaitan out of the way we won’t have to deal with undead karka…..I can’t even imagine how aweful they’d be to fight lol…

Canach could have just fallen more into Nightmare, thus altering his appearance more. A lot of the Nightmare Sylvari look very dark and whatnot.

eberkain.1472:

Expansion pack, new weapon types for all classes, done deal.

Whips and Polearms would be super.

foofad.5162:

Bakitten291:

foofad.5162:

>implying torch has better DPS than autoattacking

A) he said burst, overall sustained dps auto attack is higher than any other damage ability
B) try torch #4 sometime, one of the highest single target burst a guardian has (only second to maybe a well done ZD)

Torch 4 takes a second to cast with its animation. Sword autoattack takes one and a half seconds. If you add a full sword attack cycle’s worth of damage and take two thirds of it, it slightly out-damages torch 4. In other words, the only thing worthwhile about torch 4 is the burning, and since you have Virtue of Justice anyway it’s basically pointless. Its only saving grace is being ranged… but it’s a projectile and can be blocked and reflected as such. Scepter hits just as hard due to its fast attack speed. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about burst damage or DPS if the time-frame is the same and you deal the same amount of damage. Torch also doesn’t have a dedicated damage multiplier trait, so it’s even further behind in damage than what I said if you pick up the Sword or Scepter power traits.

Torch 5 does less than a third of the damage in its 4.25 second cast than autoattacking does, and it doesn’t even cleave 5 targets like a regular AOE, it only hits 3.

Lastly, where burst damage is most important is in short fights and PvP. Burst damage is meaningless against bosses and large groups of trash. Since we’re talking about PvE here, burst is much less important than sustained damage.

In summary: Torch is bad, don’t use it.

Wow, no. Torch is good in both pve and pvp. #4 works like a shout in that you can start up the initial self-ignition while mid-channel of cleansing flame or what have you, and cleansing flame itself I’ve had it hit up to 9k damage in both pve and pvp. If you want to make things even more fun, if using scepter / torch use the immobilize #3, then immeditately after smite then cleansing flames. Damage counters for days. Also that combo will make any glass cannon player in pvp poop themself from the amount of damage hitting them at once from a single person.

Heyas everyone! I’ve been contemplating a build for my Ranger that doesn’t focus on using the bow (I find the bow playstyle very boring and monotenous) and I came up with this!

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|1.1p.hd|7.1g.h15.7.1g.h1d|1n.7f.1n.7f.1n.7f.1n.7f.1n.7f.1n.7f|1c.9c.21j.0.2t.0.1c.9c.1p.61.8c.9c|0.u17c.k3a.0.k51|15.7|4j.4q.4r.4w.0|e
(just an FYI the soldier’s trinkets are actually the new sentinel’s trinkets…there’s no option for sentinel yet)

Idea behind this build: I made this build because I love the amount of evades / blocks / interrupts the greatsword has akittens disposal, and wanted to try to capitalize on that while also keeping a ranged option for both chasing / initiating purposes via axe/axe.

Playstyle: This build is tanky enough that you can go into the middle of a group encounter and get some serious damage in, while being able to absorb some punishment as well. I use wolf / fern hound as my pets to maximize intimidation training, as well as having ready access to fear and a free group regen. Also with the reduced hostile condition duration food being able to shake off conditions is fairly easy and manageable (shame signet of renewal’s active is so buggy.)

So far this build has been awesome in pve, and in pvp it does great on 1v1’s, and small/large group battles (the axe bounces work wonders since you can target a pet in the front of the zerg/group and the axe will ping to 2 enemies who might otherwise be out of reach.) Haven’t really tried 1vX, but this build can take some punishment from being outnumbered.

Let me know what you all think!

-Edit- I changed the traits to reflect how I currently use them. DPS has been much better this way!

I’ve been using greatsword and axe/axe while leveling my ranger and have had 0 problems with leveling him up. Both weapon sets have lots of aoe / splash damage tied to them so it makes it very easy to tag enemies to finish those hearts / events quickly. Now my thief on the other hand….holy crap is that slow going

I vote human. They have stronger looking attacks, and their movements while fighting just look / feel more fluid. Asuras have a certain….animation whackyness to them that I just don’t buy (except when they’re Mesmers lol.)

yLoon.5289:

Build +30% Dmg (low endurance , mob inflicted burning and condition, blind gives vulnerability) – 10-25-10-25-0

Weapon : Sword + Focus / Greatsword, Utilities:Save Yourself, Bane Signet, Retreat

Dance Cue:Inflict mob 12 stack of vulnerability, hit SY , and do Greatsword (2)

Skill rotation
Focus (5)&(4),Sword (2).+(3),Virtue Justice, Greatsword(3),(4) and (2).
Dmg calculation
Focus (5):7k
Sword (3):7k
Greatsword (3):3k
Greatsword (2):8k
Total :25k dmg in 10 secs.
Goes up to total 48k provided with 25 stack might and 25 stack of vulnerability in dungeon.

Fixed that for you. Also nice damage numbers!

Jam.4521:

Its an RNG item, it states that in the description, yet people are always surprised when they don’t get lucky? Its like walking into a casino and being surprised you don’t win.

If you don’t like RNG, don’t buy the box, its simple, its just a skin, you will survive without it.

Just because you want it doesn’t mean they should just give it to you.

Agreed. It also amazes me that people are complaining about free content updates in general. Kids these days.

I personally love the reflect aspect of whirling defense.. Absorbing projectiles is nice, but reflects can cause way more havoc overall. Path of scars is also extremely handy because of the 100% projectile finisher aspect, plus it can hit an enemy twice, with seperate crit chance countes, so if you can path it right that’s a lot of free damage right there.

LionZero.3479:

So where’s the traps that prevent 30 seconds of illusion spawn on mesmers, 30 seconds of zero adrenaline on warriors, 30 seconds of ranger pets disabled, 30 seconds of ele stuck in a single attunement!

1200 range 20 targets 30 sec reveal is a bit overkill in my book >_>

A random ally could trigger it and you still get struck by it ^^ all you can do now is run an evade build or port back and wait 30 sec, sounds fun ^^

Aoe moves destroy mesmer illuions, a well timed block / aegis / invuln will waste a warrior’s adrenaline, a few hits will down a ranger pet, and consistent CC will keep an ele locked down.

The trap isn’t overkill because most people will be setting them up in obvious choke point locations, and/or popular siege deploy areas. Thieves don’t just have stealth to rely on; there’s roll for initiative and withdraw which are awesome evades + stun breaker / heal. So you guys have options lol

Meditation tanky DPS build – 20-0-30-20-0
1. Hammer / Scepter & torch – Hammer primary weapon of choice, scepter for ranged combat. Rotation is based on if I can anchor mobs near me with hammer, and using immobilizes / ring of warding to keep enemies pinned on aoes my party is using.
2. Same weapons
3. While most PvE bosses may be immune to knockdowns and the like, only a few are outright immune to immobilize, which is a very handy tool to have both to keep enemies where you want them as well as keeping them away from you or whoever they’re chasing after. The protection symbol on the hammer chain keeps the damage mitigation high to help with anchoring mob(s).
4. Most of the time I dodge when enemies do the big ‘wind up’ animation. I.e. Flaming Effigy’s aoe burn in CoF path 1, Fractals Moss Man dual axe swing, etc.
5. Nothing atm.

Yaki.9563:

Does that stack with vigor?

If I recall correctly Vigor replaces it for the duration of the boon, but either way you slice it getting free might stacks on dodge rolls and a hefty endurance regen that isn’t boon reliant is very nice.

Similar to how the Super Adventure Box worked. You could trade baubles for the bauble bubble for the weapon skins. I approve of this.

I use orrian truffle and steak stew. It gives 100% chance of might on dodge, and regens endurance 40% faster. Very handy for avoiding incoming damage, as well as keeping your endurance regen flowing at all times during an encounter.

Oh believe me, we’ve seen them….it’s mega frustrating just because they add timers to EB when we could have viable players on the map rather than them just sitting at spawn or kittening around the map. In a way it’s flattering because it shows that we’re kitten someone off enough that they’d want to waste their time doing this, but at the same time it’s still mad annoying regardless.

If conditions are that much of a problem for you, just use soldier runes and shouts. They’re utilities most people use anyway and it’ll give you condition removal for days. That plus mending will keep conditions off you quite easily.

axe + mace / sword + warhorn is an awesome combo as well. The knockdown from mace #5 makes for an easy eviserate, and the sword + warhorn combo effectively makes you uncatchable. Combine those with a shout healing build and you’ll be all over the place. Alternatively hammer / sword + warhorn is very nice as well. Hammer skills aren’t that slow to begin with, but they do have a lot of distinctive “I’m winding something up!” animation that can make landing them tricky. Easiest way I’ve found to land hammer moves is hit them with the #3 cone cripple then start up backbreaker. I think greatswords are boring on warriors, but that’s just me lol.

I do like the idea of having a trait that allows pets to stick onto stealthed players. Would definitely fit the mold of the hunter working with his pet to track his/her prey.

Bakitten291:

If I can make a suggestion, try taking the 10 out of zeal and putting 5 in radiance, and 5 more in honor. not only do you get some more health, but you also pick up the 10% damage increase for having less than 100% endurance, and you also get an added defense from aoe blind on justice use. (and 50 extra perc). Your effective power and effective health both end up going up from that change, despite losing the 100 power out of zeal. Or you could go 5 into virtues instead of justice to get the bonuses on virtue use as well.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.3|2.1c.h1|b.1g.h1a.f.1g.h1d|1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f|21j.0.2u.0.31j.0.2u.0.31j.0.2u.0|a2.5.u16c.p18.0|1b.7|w.13.15.12.0|e (here is the link, its about 200 more power effective power and 800 effective health more)

I’ll give it a whirl, but with the food I use plus having vigor almost always up it’s pretty hard for me to not get full endurance during most fights. The two traits I have under the Zeal tree is why I haven’t really tried out your recommendations. Since I use both hammer and scepter the vulnverability stacks work wonders, and I get 10% free damage for having someone burning. I do tend to gravitate towards having a strong base attack damage versus a super high crit chance, so as long as my crit chance is about 15-20% I’m good to go lol. I do like the idea of dealing 20% extra damage for having someone burning!

Amins.3710:

Sil.4560:

Amins.3710:

Neither is not being able to escape a fight.

Enjoy your Luxury and quit your complaining.

rofl, escape is crap when most scenarios in PvP situations demand that you are present to prevent something from being capped or otherwise destroyed. It also presumes that a guardian is in some need of running away in the first place. Fleeing a battle for an objective does not give victory. The idea that a class should be “strong against classes that stay to fight me” because other classes have the ability to flee said battle is completely absurd and the most lazy excuse for balancing I’ve seen.

I’d also say that Setun is correct in that guardians have a number of ways to actively pull back or in some sense escape in WvW situations as it is. Knowing the moment to withdraw is often as important as actually having the proper abilities to do it.

And this is where we say… please reference the OP’s Topic.

Thank you for playing.

Actually he’s merely replying to your comments. If anything you were the 1st one to go off topic about this, so thank you for trying to look like a tool and shrug off his counter argument. <3

I’m actually at work atm until 7am, but I’m off tomorrow all day if you want to set something up then. Other than Monday my next day off will be Friday. If anything add my account name to your friends list and if we catch each on we can set something up. =)

Bakitten291

How many points do you have in radiance with your build? I ask because at 25 points you get radiant power, which means anytime you have a condition on a target, you are doing an extra 10% damage. Unless you run hammer/scepter/condition signet, odds are the extra points in zeal might be better placed in radiance, as you get a more constant damage buff. (also this turns burning into a free 20% damage boost)

If I run a 2h damage build i generally run 10/25/30/0/5 which is literally just a slightly modified version of my 10/30/30/0/0 1h strength build.

This is my build here:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.3|2.1c.h1|b.1g.h1a.f.1g.h1d|1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f|21j.0.2u.0.31j.0.2u.0.31j.0.2u.0|k12.0.u16c.k18.0|1b.7|w.13.15.12.0|e

The numbers are slightly off vs what I actually have at the moment. My attack and hp base are higher than what the site says (3400 attack and ~18.3k hp). Also I should mention that the ascended knights amulet / earring piece in the build I’m going to get eventually. Right now my Guardian has the berserker/valk ascended pieces for those slots.

I’d be willing to take that bet. Should make for a fun fight! Also shouts tend to be more popular as they’re easy on the learning curve aspect, but I get your analogy. Shout builds definitely have more obvious pros than other builds, much like shout warrior builds. Meditations seem to require much more situational awareness and keeping track of conditions on you / knowing when to purge them with smite condition or contemplations of purity.

Kirster.4605:

downed state is design for call of duty and CoD is FPS game i don’t know why anet thought it would be cool to put it in an mmo game there is a lot of great game specially rpg games out there that might have something cool that they can clone and apply it to there game but no instead they choose call of duty.

Actually Borderlands does downed state way better than those games. That aside having a downed state is like a last ditch effort of your character before he goes down completely. Wouldn’t trade it for anything.

For the OP, next time you and a ranger are both down at the same time aim for his pet. If his pet is dead he can’t use it to heal himself.

Hammer. Hammer has insane synergy with Judge’s Intervention. Wind up a ring of warding + JI = guarenteed lockdown (unless they blink out of it.) Also mighty blow hits like a freaking truck, is on a super short cooldown, and it’s a blast finisher which wonders wonders with combo fields. The raw damage of hammer is way stronger than greatsword.

Zackie.8923:

it’s just my opinion, but i don’t like the hammer because of mobility issues.

mobility is king in wvw

Hammer’s kitten good at controling enemy mobility, which is just as good. A good hammer #3 or ring of warding works wonders with getting free hits in, or forcing your opponents to use dodge rolls and/or utilites to avoid them.

Teamkiller.4315:

1. Why would you use shouts if you were roaming anyways, lol. Spirit weapons, signets, and Meds are all better in solo situations.

I’ll put it in a way a non-guardian might understand. Shouts are to the rest of our utilities what deception skills are to the rest of a thief’s utilities. Similar analogies to other professions: cantrips for eles, elixirs for engineers, etc.

Basically they for the most part outclass our other utilities and can be “traited” to make them even stronger than they already are, compared to our other utilities. I trust you’ve seen our 200% boon duration build that offers permanent retaliation and almost permanent uptime on almost all other boons in the game?

They are, in fact, superior in 1 on 1 situations than spirit weapons and meditations. And they still are, with the exception of fighting S/D thieves, maybe.

Actually cantrips have a closer semblance to meditations than shouts(with the earth cantrip being the only cantrip that’s closer to a shout as it gives boons.) Shouts versus spirit weapons are indeed strong in favor of shouts, but they’re not stronger than meditations. Equal footing perhaps, but not better.

Amins.3710:

Sil.4560:

Amins.3710:

The good news is, as the elite warrior and highly skilled player that you are, you can always just ~walk~ away from a bunker guardian…. which is more than a Guardian can say against any class other than a Necro. =]

Being better at leaving a fight because class limitations prevent you from having an equal chance at winning is not balance.

Neither is not being able to escape a fight.

Enjoy your Luxury and quit your complaining.

If you’re trying to compare our escape vs thieves, or some highly mobile-specced class, then you’re right. Other than that though with smart use of weapon skills, and using shelter and/or renewed focus + utilities at the right time you can avoid some messy encounters. I.e. turning around for a sec while retreating to throw a hammer #3 on a zerg / group chasing you will almost always hit at least 1-2 people. Or using ring of warding to make a choke point or using it your lockout a choke point to buy yourself time while your chasers bop into it or try to use up dodge rolls to get through it. Then of course there’s the various leaps, blinks, and knockbacks from the other weapon sets you can use as well. So there’s options.

I use 20 points into Zeal for my meditation / tanky dps build and with the 5 stacks of vulnerability when using an immobilize, + 10% increased damage to burning targets (something we do quite often and easily) I haven’t had a problem with the tree. Then again I also use hammer / scepter + torch as my weapon sets to maximize the immobilization trait.

I will say that I think hammer is much more of a bursty weapon vs the greatsword. Granted greatsword has the fast attacks people like, but with mighty blow on hammer on a 4-5 sec cooldown that crits for 4k at minimum versus most enemies, and the auto chain doing 850-1.2k on non crit hits, it packs way more punch per blow than the greatsword. Just my opinion / what I’ve seen damage wise with my character.

Goldrock.9076:

Not all that hard to form a group neither since their is no trinity to doin a dungeon.

and with gw2lfg.com finding groups is stupid easy, no matter the dungeon. I’ve literally formed groups for fotm 26 runs in under a minute with that website.

I have 2 human males now and I chose them because I love the way they wield big weapons like hammers / greatsword in during combat, running around the map, and walking with them while wielded. Also the human males are voiced by the same guy who did Nathan Drake. What isn’t there to love?

P.S.
I also picked them because in combat they sound like kitteny instigators… “go ahead, hit me!”

Oh Lord he’s at it again

Stice.5204:

Vox Hollow.2736:

A Tier-based Meta is an exhausting mentality to buy into.
It’s all about putting greater than or lesser than signs between things, but it rarely asks itself how much of an impact it all has.

This has been my experience as a long-term MMO player too. A vocal subset of players always gets it into their heads that “not optimal” and “not viable” mean the same thing, so any class that isn’t objectively the best at its given role is, by definition, complete garbage and desperately in need of a buff, even if the actual difference in performance is so marginal it’s barely noticeable without a stopwatch or a spreadsheet.

Of course, if said class ever gets that buff, whatever class was previously the best in that role suddenly becomes complete garbage desperately in need of their own buff. This creates a never-ending cycle of stress and resentment between players of different classes. This is also why so many players invent ridiculous conspiracy theories about how the developers hate them for playing certain classes and want them to quit or reroll. Why? Because if the developers liked a class then obviously they’d buff it to the point where it was the best (“only viable”) option for a given task that players like.

First thing that came to mind while reading this were Elementalists / Mesmers complaining about the recent changes on the 4/30 patch lmao….“Ermahgerd RtL is useless nao Imma quit!” Oh forum drama queens….how they entertain me. XD

Overall good post Vox!