Sounds like medizerk guardians will have a place in stronghold, if only to just counter thieves.
Traits:
6 – I/VII/XI
6 – II/X/XI
0
2 – V
0Skills:
7 – Quickening Zephyr
8 – Spike trap
9 – Viper’s Nest
0 – Entangle
Looking at the traits, I’d say most of the marksmanship line is unnecessary. Steady Focus and Predetor’s Onslaught are damage % multipliers used in power builds and won’t help a condition based build. I’m not much of a trap user myself so I can’t give any advice there, but I’ll share how I build mine.
It’s a survival utility based condition build. Cleansing through Survival of the Fittest and Empathetic Bond. Plenty of bleeds, poison and burning for the majority of the damage plus torment sigils for a bit extra damage and a perma-cover condition. Rabid gear for precision to proc sigils, but if you went with a different sigil dire would work just as well.
For the utilities, I feel Lightning Reflexes are a must in almost any ranger build. Beyond that, Muddy Terrain adds a low cooldown immobilize and cripple which is really handy to set up Split Blades or even chain with an Entangle (then drop a Bonfire on top of it). Sharpening Stone works really well with Split Blade to stack up 10 bleeds. The build has a lot of synergy going for it. Also, I take Keen Edge over Sharpened Edges in this build for the extra SotF proc, and SE works all around better with shortbow instead of melee.
There’s a lot of threads around that talk about survival rangers. The meta build is pretty flexible and you can choose how it works best for you as you learn more about it. You can even go Apothecary if you want to focus on a regen survival. I would not recommend any of this for PvE though, I’m assuming it’s for roaming WvW.
The idea of knights gear is to give you dps with power and precision, while giving you some damage resistance. Valkyrie gear is good for damage with power and ferocity if you can get your critical chances elsewhere. I would think a 2/6/6/0/0 build with one handed weapons (sword, scepter) and Right Hand Strength (15% crit) would work well together.
Something like…
Extra survivability (16.7k hp) without losing any ferocity like with knights gear. Power is still good because valkyrie gear main stat is power, and precision is maintained through trait line, RHS and fury (up to 68%). The loss of Absolute Resolution is balanced with Lemongrass, the extra vitality will help against conditions too. Meditation guardians have a base +300 toughness through traits, plus the heavy armor, for a bit of damage resistance.
I’d say it really depends on the build you’re trying to make.
Not sure if you mixed up the links CMF, but the only difference in the two are the runes.
The main concern I have with a hybrid build is what you pointed out though. How often your allies are putting down their own burning. I’m sure with an Elementalist there will be some at the very least. Not to forget that the guardian would have already been putting down burning as it is.
From what I gathered briefly looking at the numbers, the burning from the build I posted will net +700 damage a tick (full might stacks) over the meta zerker build. I didn’t go further into the math though and see the comparison of damage loss from no ferocity.
I wonder if this is why all the warriors say their class is so bad…
I’ve seen a lot of people trying out sinister gear and having luck with it. Haven’t tried it myself, and certainly haven’t done any numbers so I can’t really tell you how it compares with zerk. It would be interesting though to see.
If any situation requires Absolute Resolution it’s easy enough to put it in. Swap out utilities when required. The idea is to keep as much power and precision as possible while sacrificing ferocity for condition damage. I don’t know if the burning outweighs what the ferocity would give, but if you were to want DoT ticks of burning something like this is the way to go. Full condi won’t work, but a hybrid isn’t awful. Gearing for any vitality or toughness, like with carrion or rabid, would be a complete waste in PvE.
With full stacks of might and bloodlust, you’d be up to 3500 power and 2300 condition damage. The burning would be ticking for 1.2k while still putting out a good deal of direct damage. You’ll get perma-burning from the VoJ passive so just follow a standard dps rotation.
I’ve wanted to try an axe/mace rifle build but I haven’t gotten to it yet. Rifle Butt for Eviscerate and Tremor for Kill Shot seems like they would work pretty good together. Plus you can get like 22 stacks of vulnerability built up. I think it would work better in PvP as the mobility on greatsword is really handy in WvW.
I was thinking of something like a x/2/x/2/6 with Leg Specialist for extra Eviscerate chances with Throw Axe. I don’t think Kill Shot would be able to cast in time from an Aimed Shot without some heavy condition duration. I thought about Cleansing Ire but with the two bursts it’s not really reliable, even if it’s just for the extra adrenalin. I can always trait Sharpened Axes for what I need.
I’m still wishing for a 25% movement speed elite signet. Come on HoT. (:
I put this together if you wanted to try two melee with MoC.
You’ve got Hilt Bash, Path of Scars, Counterattack and Terrifying Howl to trigger MoC. Good access to condition cleanse (4/10s plus full cleanse), two stun breakers and stability. An extra 25% damage with SotW will make Maul do some serious damage with MoC.
20% cooldown reductions on sword/greatsword and utilities. Evades, blocks and a projectile destroyer. Whirling Defense is always good for some cleave on a downed target while it defends range at the same time. Sigils and runes are pretty standard.
Actually looks kind of fun for just putting it together.
Just a head’s up, the build editor doesn’t work well with pets. Nothing increases the F2 durations, even the trait that increases duration by 50% is bugged.
Your link shows cleric amulet, but if you’re going with rampager I don’t think you’ll have enough power for greatsword to do any good. I think you’d be better off picking either power or conditions to focus on. Axe and dagger/torch work well with shortbow. Maybe LB with greatsword and still use Moment of Clarity. Or even go full power melee with greatsword and sword/warhorn.
Are you putting exotics or rares into the forge?
All it takes is a little awareness to check if a ranger has initiated Rapid Fire while you’re stealthing up. If so, just dodge. Maybe the thief should have stealthed sooner, before Rapid Fire was off of cooldown. A ranger can’t cast Rapid Fire on a target in stealth, so in that regard the thief is outplayed.
I do find it hilarious though that thieves have such a hard time when using d/p against Rapid Fire. Isn’t there an on demand interrupt that can be used to stop it? Or do they expect not to have to spend any initiative? Regardless, once a thief closes the gap it’s easy picking on a full glass ranger.
Being a thief and complaining about it is pretty much holding up a sign that says “I need to l2p”.
So warriors don’t suck, because you like being a subpar class that run around buff botting? Guardians take more damage, have better buffs, better mitigation, better cc, and do more damage!
Guardians do not have better CC, not even close. If that’s something you want, warrior has a clear advantage with things like hammer stuns and the immobilizes from sword F1 and Pindown. Guardian buffs in general are more defensive while warrior buffs tend to be offensive. Good luck working swiftness or movement speed into a guardian build, but a warrior will never have any issues with it. A guardian can be kited around with ease.
Maybe so, however the Guardian will also regen and not die while being kited whilst the Warrior will fall over and die in between mobility cds. Warriors are easily dispatched in comparison and Guardians can push out more dps.
Right. That 5s of regen a medizerk might have is going to do a lot of healing. Unless you’re talking about a bunker but then they aren’t doing the damage you were mentioning.
I take it you’re talking about the 2k healing from meditations (Monk’s Focus) in which you get from using them. Not a whole lot different from shoutbow warriors healing themselves while Healing Signet ticks for 370hp a second. Oh, and shouts heal your team unlike meditations.
Not to try and start a balance war here or anything, but each class is built to sustain itself in some way even though they’re different. A warrior starts out with 8k hp more than a guardian with different mechanics to sustain it. Does a medizerk counter warriors in general? Yeah, for the most part. But they aren’t very hard to beat if you’ve played them yourself instead of blindly comparing/complaining.
So warriors don’t suck, because you like being a subpar class that run around buff botting? Guardians take more damage, have better buffs, better mitigation, better cc, and do more damage!
Guardians do not have better CC, not even close. If that’s something you want, warrior has a clear advantage with things like hammer stuns and the immobilizes from sword F1 and Pindown. Guardian buffs in general are more defensive while warrior buffs tend to be offensive. Good luck working swiftness or movement speed into a guardian build, but a warrior will never have any issues with it. A guardian can be kited around with ease.
It’d be nice to have a trait that allows you to pick up the banner and put it on your back. Something like pressing the utility skill assigned to that banner to pick it up or put it back down. That way you can get the bonuses while mobile but not taking up your weapon slot. Or just have that as a base line ability of banners.
But to the conversation about warriors in PvE, I think it’s more the content’s fault than the class’ fault that it’s so boring. Each class might bring one or two things, well besides necros, but beyond that is just skill rotations and dodging. Pending more interesting content or more difficult content, it will just be bring your dps and what utility your class has. Warrior luckily has banners, so it’s in a good spot for now. DPS will have it’s ups and downs but it won’t go to garbage tier.
This is my survival condition ranger (pvp). I’ve done a lot of testing and it seems to be the balance I like the most. I’ll list out the differences between your build and maybe you’ll pick up something you like.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjEq0yaHL2sQ1aABhaVA0uGS2Wwd+eDfdBraA-TJhHABot/AAnEAkKDA8TAAA
- Empethetic Bond is taken over Bark Skin (I would take Poison Master over Bark Skin in situations not requiring condition removal)
- Keen Edge is taken over Sharpened Edges (SE works best with shortbow, Keen Edge triggers Survival of the Fittest & benefits from 20% cooldown)
- Sword/Torch Axe/Dagger for best condition spread
- 2x Torment Sigils for an extra cover condition + damage
- 2x Geomancy Sigils to supplement bleed stacks
- Drakehound > Spider (or even Lynx for 8 more stacks of bleed)
- Wilderness Knowledge is a must
- Traveler Runes taken over Krait Runes for constant movement speed and 20% condition duration (10% on runes, 10% traited) for all conditions instead of 45% for bleeds only. The build needs to give up something for mobility (either a utility slot, runes, offhand weapon or 2 in Skirmishing), this is what works best for me. Might cost a bit in WvW but totally worth it IMO.
I like the survival condi ranger because of it’s customization. You can tweak it in multiple ways to suit your needs while still getting great results. I wouldn’t consider any survival ranger cheese, unlike how the longbow rangers are considered. It is a really solid build though that can go up against just about anything if built well.
Good luck!
I run torch all the time, when using two 1handed weapons that is.
While Zealot’s Fire (torch throw) does some good damage on a short cooldown, Cleansing Flame is a dps loss in most situations. It can be used to cleanse ally conditions, but really doesn’t bring enough utility to compare to the focus. It’s best used for cleave is when using scepter, like if a thief is in a shadow refuge (drop Smite and use Cleansing Flame).
I would certainly take it over shield though in builds with two 1handed weapons. I would rate focus an A, torch a B and shield a C-.
It all depends on their comp. You said ranger with LB, I’m guessing maybe a thief and necro/engi on the other team?
Judge’s Intervention will be very handy for bursting down the ranger. I would consider targeting them first so they can’t get behind and lay out some Rapid Fires from 100%. You should be able to down him yourself and make sure to use the VoJ blind to secure your stomp.
I’d watch some burst videos to get the hang of it. Timing a Shield of Wrath into a Whirling Wrath with Judge’s Intervention can do some serious damage, especially if you can get some CC support from your team with good timing.
Save whichever bunker/brawler for last and focus on the glass first. Medizerk guardians counter most other zerkers. Make sure to note if the ranger is longbow or condi survival to adjust your order if necessary.
Hornet Sting is fine how it is. Works great in combat and isn’t very hard to get use to going forward with on both leaps.
With the decreased damage of 100b, I don’t see a problem with shaving 1s off. Like with what happened with Rapid Fire. The long cast time on 100b wasn’t as much of an issue before because the damage was good, but if the damage is reduced the cast time should follow suit. It would make it easier to land more of, while balancing in the way Anet likes to (nerf one thing, fix it by buffing it some other way).
It wouldn’t technically increase it’s damage like Rapid Fire didn’t, but it will boost the dps.
Well, my first advice is to roll a better class for dealing conditions. But if you insist, I’ll help round out your build with you.
As Aedrion said, Monk’s Focus is a must for any meditation build. You’re looking at I, II and XII in the Valor line. I would try a 6/2/6/0/0 build with Shimmering Defense in the Radiance line. You’ll get a little extra condition damage, and a huge burn while you’re trying to kite away and heal.
I think the Runes of Balthazar are the best for a guardian condition build, especially without Supreme Justice. You want to save Renewed Focus for defensive purposes, I can’t sign off on using it for a couple stacks of conditions with Krait runes. You’ll still have 2 seconds of burning every five hits, so I think it’s okay to drop the Smoldering sigils and add 2x doom and 2x geomancy sigils. The poison is a must and the bleeds are necessary as you don’t get them anywhere else.
As for counters, you’ll have a really hard time against a survival ranger. Between Empathetic Bond (3 conditions cleansed/10s) and Survival of the Fittest (2 conditions on survival utility) and maybe even Signet of Renewal or Healing Spring they have an immense amount of condition removal. Add high condition application/variety and it’s an uphill fight. Contemplation of Purity is your only real cleanse, so use it only when you’re loaded up. Look out for Entangle and if you get caught teleport out with your sword #2.
You’ll be applying burning so often that you will put in some damage. Your biggest weakness though is your mobility. With no swiftness or 25% movement speed, you’ll get kited quite often. Save your gap closers for when you need them and play smart. If you can, play close to someone who can help give you some swiftness in a team fight.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRArd8flsApaolDxbI8DNR8QZVHUdAkAP61/wMkDA-TJRHwAV2fIwTAAZZAAnEAA
P.S. Smite Condition is really important for sustain in a meditation build. That’s 2k healing every 16s. Even though Purging Flames can burn and cleanse 3 conditions, I would still take Smite Condition over it. You cleanse 1 less condition over 32 seconds but you gain 4k hp.
(edited by Shanks.2907)
Seems like good fun. I would move the 6 points from Death Magic and put them into Soul Reaping for IV (Spectral Mastery) VIII (Near to Death) and XII (Death Perception). Maybe even swap Focus Mastery in the adept Smite line.
You’ve got three spectral skills on your bar so a 20% cooldown is always great. You get an extra Spectral Armor in the master minor trait of Soul Reaping which is nice. Getting into death shroud more frequently, more life force pool and good crit chance in it to take advantage of your power from soldier amulet.
You’d cut 6 seconds of Spectral Grasp too for more chill. Might even consider swapping out Spectral Wall for Spectral Walk, as more stun breaks might be nice.
Makes me want to go try it myself. Looks like a pain to deal with in a team fight.
The build is interesting, for sure.
Healing power, though, is wasted on meditations. It doesn’t scale very well. You’ve gained about 500 healing per use for the total investment, which might be an extra ~3k healing per minute. Selfless Daring scales better, but that’s about the extent. I’m not sure if the sustain gained outweighs the damage loss, I would have to try testing it myself.
I built a sustain oriented meditation build myself a while back, that you might be interested in.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRAsd7flsApaolDxbI8DNR8gY9nWbqKw1/CmD-TpBFwACOBAWLDQ4gAUb/hFHBAAPAAA
It utilizes a 2/6/6/0/0 build with a soldier’s amulet. 24 base crit chance plus 20% on fury and 15% on 1handed weapons. 2100 power, 3k armor and 18k hp. Air/fire on sword for dps, energy/blood for sustain on scepter. You could even do a 0/6/6/1/1 build dropping a bit of damage for sustain.
It does suffer the same problems yours would though. That is a lack of burst and mobility. ~50% uptime on swiftness in combat isn’t terrible, but out of combat you’re a turtle. Traveler runes could be taken over pack runes, dropping some power, precision and fury for consistent movement speed.
Also, it would be a channeled blue flame. Pretty obvious and easy to dodge. Necro focus has three boon strips on a single projectile on low cooldown. I don’t think the skill would be too OP over a 1.5s channel.
I think it would offer guardian a lot that it doesn’t have already. Both offensive builds with meditations and bunker builds would be able to utilize it. As it is, guardian bunker builds are falling behind and something like this could put them back into the mix.
I use it a lot of the time immediately after a dodge. It creates a bit of a gap, and it will auto turn you around like oobs mentioned. Seems to work pretty often for me.
Also, have it remove conditions from the Guardian as well.
If I had to choose between cleansing conditions on yourself or boon strip, I would take the latter. I don’t think it could do both on just a 15 second cooldown.
My idea:
Cleansing Flame
- Reduce hits from 9 to 4, adjust cast time
- Increase conditions removed per hit on allies
- Strip boon per hit
Removing the extended cooldown on Zealot’s Flame for using Zealot’s Fire was a good change. I think as it is that skill is now in a good spot, and with the added utility of boon strip on Cleansing Flame I think the torch would compete well for offhand choice compared to the focus.
It could even open up viability in different roles. Guardian is certainly lacking in the boon strip department with a single passive strip every 10s.
The blue flame is quite obvious, so I don’t think it would be OP with 4 strips on a channel.
“AoE of scepter”
hahahah what?
I believe I said it’s unreliable in the post but it is a circle on the ground, no? Whether it is or not seems like semantics to me.
(edited by Shanks.2907)
One suggestion though, don’t make it TDM. Have it elimination and best 2 of 3 to make each match up last a bit longer.
I’ve thought instead of deathmatch, a king of the hill 3v3 would be fun. Just have a single point the two sides fight over and to win the round either kill the team or take the point. The map could be the size of mid at Legacy of Foefire with plenty of LoS to move around.
Would also make for some diverse comps with both a bunker or brawler on point while the glass moves in and out on the sides.
also I think you are limiting your ideas to melee combat moves. hammer and gs have spirit shackles for example. I think a new guardian weapon should explore a bit more of this area even if its only to mix up combat styles.
90% of guardian’s burst and utility are projectile-based. We need LESS projectile attacks, not more.
It is a little annoying eating your sword AA in a reflect or some of your Whirling Wrath.
I really like using Sw/F Sc/T with a 2/6/6/0/0 build. You get the utility and AoE of scepter for team fights and the pressure of sword.
Whirling Wrath on greatsword might be a good burst in damage but it’s hard to get a full one in. On the other hand, you can still get a good burst in with scepter/sword with more success. Torch throw can do some good damage on top of an immob smite. Sword can do some great sustained damage with the multipliers 2/6/6/0/0 offers on a very high crit chance.
The one thing I really miss though when I take it is that greatsword is a thief killer. Binding Blades tracks target in stealth allowing a pull out of a shadow refuge or anywhere else, and WW can be useful inside a SR. Great cleave too when the target goes down in a team fight.
As for sword or scepter, it’s all preference imo. I like the pressure that sword offers and the extra gap closer/blind. It’s tough losing the immob on scepter, but I think Smite isn’t completely reliable.
Well, I’ll add something.
If using a soldier amulet (high power, low precision), you can use an intelligence sigil for Zealot’s Fire. Works well with Protector’s Strike on mace #3 for a good burst.
I really want to like Mending combined with Restorative Strength. It’s not going to touch the raw healing of the Healing Signet, but it does have it’s purpose. It can potentially cleanse the difference if used at the right time.
It’s tough not to take Healing Signet though. I haven’t played a lot of Warrior lately, but in situations with a lot of poison I could see Mending to be on par with Healing Signet.
Before the cooldown buffs I thought it would be nice to see a knockdown on #4 and block while channeling #5. Now with the new cooldowns though I think it would be too much and now we’re just screwed with what we’ve got.
I completely remap all of my keys binds, shifting all of my controls to the right a few keys. Makes a bunch of more keys available to me to use for my pinkie and ring fingers. My friends all call me weird for it, but some do get why I do it. I think one of them have started experimenting with whole new setups too.
For me, weapon swap is Q.
I did the same thing. I removed them all and built it from scratch. Took a few weeks to get use to but in the end I couldn’t be more comfortable. The default keybindings are crap, and trying to fix them by changing one or two things won’t help the root of the problem.
My swap is set to T.
I think these type builds should be in the same league as condi engi, ranger, and other similar builds.
There is no way a medicondi guardian can match up against the survival condi ranger. In both condition output and sustain it is superior in every way. Entangle alone puts it on another level. I don’t know how you can mix up it up with a top tier instead of putting it where it belongs with condi mesmers and eles like Keksmuffin mentioned earlier.
When I play Warrior I usually use Greatsword & Sword/Shield because I can, and it’s fun. Arcing Slice fits into my usual rotation, so I’m happy with the buff. I like that you can use it with only one bar of adrenalin, works well with burst mastery. Now a 10% damage buff would be a 20% damage buff on targets below 50% hp, right?
Of course I’ll only use it in hotjoin to not pull a team down in ranked tPvP.
These are both current, so you’ll probably find what you’re looking for there.
I like putting Sigil of Stamina on (refills endurance on kill) and how well it works with Selfless Daring. Once the kills start rolling you can put out a bunch of healing while avoiding a bunch of damage, works even better with Renewed Justice adding blinds to the mix.
Fire sigil works well with staff so I’d always keep that on. Bloodlust can just as easily go on your second weapon set. You only need 5 kills for full stacks so you don’t really need it on your primary weapon. Make sure you put a Bloodlust sigil on your underwater weapon too so you don’t lose your stacks.
The video was done well. The walk to the graveyard and kneeling was a nice touch.
Axe for the bleeds?!
#HoTcondiguardianhype2015
Do you have your receipt? What’s their return policy? Do you know someone who can help build one better for less money?
If it’s prebuilt, probably wasted several hundred dollars and got a bunch of stuff you don’t need.
Concept three:
Give warriors the ability to have a smaller penalty when they miss their f1 skill
Try using Burst Mastery.
I took it as the specializations were only available in PvE, which would make it a non-issue for balance in PvP. Was I mistaken? It seemed like something “to help you get through the jungle”.
Whatever it is, I think it will be my main when it comes out. I never liked guardian due to the crap mobility and warrior due to the simplicity. I hope the new class will have a high skill cap and alot of build diversity.
Btw in the trailer, Rytolock became a Revenant and we saw him teleporting around and stabbing people with a sword.
It looks like a mix between thief/dervish and ritualist.
I saw that too and was so excited. Looked like some fun mechanics that can take advantage of my bolt. I’m building up to 80 tomes of knowledge and I’ve got a stack of skill points to buy all the traits.
I never go down, but it is annoying having to stomp people. >.>
- we cannot entirely choose when the other pet active skills are used.
Agreed. I think a simple fix would be to have the pet “attack” and “return” both be F1. That is, if the pet is attacking, hitting F1 would return the pet to you. If it’s next to you, F1 would make it attack the target. It would serve as a toggle combat command leaving F3 as the second pet active skill (wolf knockdown, drake blast, etc). It could open up a lot of control that you just can’t count on in situations when you need it right now.