Guild Wars 2

Personally, if you could summon the spirit weapon and have an option to equip it instead of it having the command skill the same way and elementalist can with their conjured equips, with the weapons coming with with a whole set of skills different from their normal weapon counter parts (like sword of justice having different skills from GS, or spirit hammer having different skills from the usual hammer) it would be really cool. This way, you don’t need to worry about having the weapons knocked around, and they could operate the exact same way elementalist weapons with their duration/durability. To be honest, I was hoping the specialization would center around an unarmed guardian (like a monk) and then having them conjure weapons as part of their profession skills for awesome amount of versatility.

Not sure if people have already told you this (too lazy to read through the forum), but a basic summary of guard from my experience (also my first char, as well as my main).

General Tips:
- Don’t rely on staff as a main weapon, but do carry staff for the might and swiftness. The symbol of swiftness seems like it gives you a small amount of swiftness in comparison to every other class’ sources of swiftness, but the way the symbol works is that you have stay standing on it for the duration to stack. If you stand on it for the full duration, you should get around 20 seconds of swiftness and pretty much be able to keep up permanent swiftness uptime, without forcing you to get save yourselves or retreat.

-Greatsword is perfect for PvE purposes, since mobs are dumb and don’t really dodge your whirl, they stand around in your symbol all day.

-Damage is your best friend. Guardian already is capable of supporting the party really well (especially if you swap for staff to quickly buff and go back to your main weapon). Don’t stat for healing/defense, since this game rewards actively dodging and blocking (something guards have a crapload of) more than just face tanking.

-As for heal skills, you’ll find shelter to be of much more use in the higher levels (since it blocks, and blocks are your friend). Signet of Resolve is fine for now. Litany is terrible, even when traited for. Healing Breeze is nice, but most players don’t need the pittance it provides, so you may as well roll the best heal for yourself.

-As for elites, the tomes are really nice. Renewed focus is the best for pvp, so don’t worry about getting/using it until you’re good and ready to start fighting players because it provides an invulnerability to damage for 2 seconds (again, much better than facetanking).

-As for utilities, a full bar of meditations (when traited for) allows you to acheive the maximum damage output possible for guardian. Shouts are really good support and you’ll come to realize that stability is super useful in high level content. You never want to slot full spirit weapons or full consecrations, since you’re terrible hampering your damage/support capabilities, but feel free to grab one (like spirit hammer for the knockdown, or shield of the avenger for the super long duration range attack block, or bow of truth for the condition removal, or purging flames for the condi removal, hallowed ground for the stability (super important), sanctuary for the all powerful damage mitigation).

-As for traits, the breakdown is pretty much like this
xx Zeal is straight up damage. This tree also improves your greatsword and scepter damage, along with a buff to your focus and spirit weapon cooldown, which is really useful later on.
xx Radiance is for more bursty (more crits) damage. It buffs your sword and gives you a very sweet bonus to your crit damage.
xx Valor is for meditations. This tree is a little too much in my opinion, since it provides both the best possible offense and the best possible healing all in one tree.
xxHonor is for support. You get heals on your symbols and you get buffs to your shouts, which is are arguably the best support utilities for guard (and in the game).
xxVirtues is for a general buff to you and to your profession skill (your virtues). Never EVER go more than 4 points into this line. A full 6 is pointless and it, again, hampers your ability to preform.

Thats pretty much it. Fortunately, guardian is such a well rounded class that its really hard to mess yourself up, and since its so easy to try other skills/weapons/builds, you can make as many mistakes as you want as you work towards your ideal fit.

Royal.2693:

What about people so desperate to win to run celestial eles/engis all the time?

At least turret engi is not OP

Cele is beatable if you’re specced right. Turret engis, on the other hand, are ridiculously hard to kill unless you +1, spend a few minutes from range trying to smash thier mid-air turrets, eat their craploads of CC after smashing their turrets only to have to face crate, or try bursting them with a condi build that doesn’t really work in most other situations.

For guards, altruistic healing or monks focus are a must. Without them, you’re as good as dead.

Holy kitten. Just because of this, this turret warr needs to be made. MAKE IT HAPPEN ANET, CAN YOU NOT FEEL ALL THIS SOUL?

Albaraa.1635:

Also maybe if the engineer is not in a certain radius of his turrets they stop attacking…

I’m surprised people just scrolled past this. This is actually an amazing idea that would actually provide an actual form of counterplay aside from “KILL IT FROM RANGE”

Well, such an idea for the soldier classes would be a little dumb since showing skin would defeat the purpose of heavy armor, although this wouldn’t be too bad for the light armored classes, since less fabric means less things to catch onto terrain and its easier to stay mobile in leather suits than it is with a billowing cloak.

What’s everyone’s problem? The airplane thing was fine, jeez. It was done in good humour and, in my opinion, it was good.

Give them increased precision at night, kinda like cats :P. When someone goes stealth nearby, let them be able to keep up on their last known position so you could roughly gauge that sneaky snake’s movements.

I know that this wasn’t the topic, but if we’re talking racials, I was thinking giving sylvari greater regen in fields and near water and the ability to shoot wood and stuff like Groot. Give asura higher precision and power when casting spells. Give norn raw physical strength. Give humans……give humans…….the six gods, since they’re practically useless without their weapons :P.

That’s part of the fun, in my opinion :P.

^That. Also the reason why most of the meta builds surround team support.

Unless you’re getting +1’ed by the fresh air, you SHOULD win a 1v1 unless you’re absolute paper.

You can’t reliably finish an auto attack, #3 at close range is pointless, #4 is lols, #5 can be stab/teleported through (anyone who CAN’T teleport can facetank, except for necro) and in some cases, your banish could knock them out of the circle. The only perk is mighty blow, but that has really low range and could be dodged by a person who knows what they’re doing.

GS CAN reliably finish an auto attack (also can help you keep around 2 stacks of might if you’re just autoing between skills). #2 is so good it has a whole setup around its burst. #3 is an ACTUAL gap closer with a nifty blind WHICH can get you some clutch damage mitigation if you can time it, #4 (especially when traited for) can really help you claim a point. #5 is an AoE pull that counts as a whirl (meaning you have TWO skills to shoot cleansing bolts out of if you do it in a light field) and is an uncleansable “condition”.

In terms of damage, the GS outshines the Hammer ANY day in ANY way vs ANY class. In terms of mobility, the GS wins. The CC on hammer is far too telegraphed for it to be good enough as a standalone weapon which is why I believe its merely a utility weapon. You don’t find bunker builds running GS for a reason.

Fresh air is anything but unfair. What kitten build could you possibly be playing that would make you hate a fresh air ele?

rock paper TURRET.

Shield is, in my opinion, really good for support guardians. Because mace can block (which is fair if you consider that making shield able to block would be a bit OP when coupled with something like sword), you can drop the mace healing symbol and either choose between blocking direct hits with the mace or blocking ranged attacks with the shield. Being able to constantly throw out 6+ seconds of protection without traits or utilities is also really nice for a support guardian. The knock back and the heal that accompanies the detonation of the bubble is pretty solid when you combine it with the mace symbol. Think about it like this, focus is for more offensive guardians with shield being for the defensive/support guardians.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAW5el8ApeoNDxXI8DNRCRk1M2ntlXH0cA-TJRJABveRAEqMgI7PAwTAAA

Here’s a little support guardian build I whipped up, not sure if something like this has already been made, but your on-the-point support should be just about legendary.

Saiyan.1704:

I could be completely off base but SY went from most important shout to 2nd or even third best. It isn’t as big of a game changer anymore thanks to the meta shift. Team wide cleanse is nice no doubt about that, but on a comp where your teamates are already self-sustaining, SYG can be replaced by a lower cd shout that you’ll utilize twice as much in a single fight.

Sure, but that only applies when you’re running something semi organised or when the people you’re with are half decent.

ronpierce.2760:

SlayerSixx.5763:

Turrets and super condi builds. Yay for having the game play itself for us.

Lol because conditions apply themselves and aren’t a result of not dodging attacks! Amirite?! XD

You can’t block traps. You don’t know when stealth classes are going to jump you or if they just ran off. Most condi classes focus on just tickling you with constant weak hits to keep their application up while they dump the rest of their traits/runes/sigils into evading. Ever faced a SA condi thief who knows what he’s doing? Or a condi mes? Hell, I’ve tried running a burn guard with a focus on CCs and most fights just up and ended while I was BLOCKING. I’m no thief or mesmer enthusiast, but I feel bad for them when they’re trying to setup really cool combos only to hit my wall of blocks and then burn themselves to a crisp.

TL;DR condi builds rely on condis to deal damage, therefore they find ways to make sure their condis are constantly being applied. Since they can PASSIVELY damage you, they can ACTIVELY focus on surviving.

People need to stop crying about meta builds. There either IS a synergy between traits/runes/utilities/sigils or no synergy at all and then builds make no sense. As far as I’m concerned, they’ve done the balance just right. Only thing they need to tweak (nerf) are people capable of dealing 1k+ condi damage per second while they run from you and reapply as soon as they’re cleansed and turrets. The thing is, whatever way they move balance around, the best players will always find a way to pump out the most efficiency and BAM, the meta is back and in full swing.

The rock, paper, scissors argument is just dumb. Some classes are meant to lord it over some other classes and vice versa, but then you’d only be talking about 1v1s. The only time you run into 1v1s is when you’re roaming or when you decide to rush far alone while they enemy team is fighting your team on mid. In that case, you need to understand that your setup and live with your decision. If you run a staff ele and complain that you get destroyed by a thief or ranger, or you’re a thief who complains about guardians when you can easily run away and choose other fights, then you need to L2P. You have to understand that alot of PvP is done in groups and that 1v1 scenarios shouldn’t matter if every player is covering their ally. A great piece of advice a friend gave me was to play as if you’re carrying the team. If everyone plays like they’re trying to carry, they’ll be playing with their 100 and you should be rolling through the other team.

Skyhammer and other trolly kitten makes me cry, but oh well. Just stay outta unranked or rush the hammer as soon as the match starts and keep the kittenes off it. Also, what is this invisible bug of which you speak of?

^This guy knows his kitten.

Well, I feel hammer only has its uses when you use Ring + JI and then let your combo loose, but even then it doesn’t work because of teleports and stability or them just giving you the middle finger and hitting you with kittentons of CC. Combo hammer with GS and you’ll suddenly find that hammer is really useful for landing a few CCs and going for the big damage with GS.

TL;DR hammer feels more like a utility weapon.

Ever played TF2? Imagine all the squeakers x.×. No thanks.

DarkSyze.8627:

SlayerSixx.5763:

Guard is supposed to be a team player. Interestingly enough, some if the best support comes from NON guardian classes. Just food for thought.

There is only 2 class in the game that are build for support: warrior and guardian: no matter what build they use.

D/D celestial ele can heal for days. Rangers can run spirits. Thieves can run a venomshare/ninja medic loadout and provide sweet resets while still dealing some good damage. Engineers can do pretty much everything, just not as well as everyone else. The only classes that CAN’T run enough party support to do anything worthwhile are mesmers and necros, and mesmers can pretty much fill the thief’s role, but to a slightly lesser effect. Try playing the game a little more and you’ll find that getting beat when ganking is nothing but a embarrassment.

Become a mechanically sound player and pray you get partied with other mechanically sound players. Had a match yesterday where the other team thought my team was a premade just because we all knew how to play our class and had a decent rotation rhythm. Sure, you’ll occasionally run into some premades (like two turret engis, a shout bow, a d/d, and a thief), you’ll just have to take your lumps and move on knowing you aren’t a bad player, they’re just ultra tryhards.

I play dps guard and the only thing that I run from are turret engineers because you know…. Engi + 6 NPCs. Other than TURRET engineer’s you SHOULDN’T be having issues vs any other class as a dps guard.

Your combo should be along these lines:

If you’re running scepter/focus

Chain > Smite > Ray > Swap to GS > JI + BB > Symbol > Pull > WW > Leap > Swap to SC/F > Chain > Smite > Auto > Ray > Swap to GS > Leap > Smite + WW

All the while, don’t forget to use your CoP (I prefer using it just as he pelts me with condis and then knocks me back so I can clear his condis, stunbreak, and heal all at once) and your blocks to negate his damage while you hurtle around wrecking his face.

If you run sword/focus:

JI + Zealots defense > Auto attack if he’s in range. If he’s not, SW3 and then auto attack > Ray > Swap to GS > BB > Symbol, if he runs after getting hit by BB to make sure you can’t pull him, just go straight for the pull > Smite + WW > Auto attack > Leap once he tries to make distance > Auto Attack > Swap to sword and repeat the combo if you feel like it.

Edit: In the scepter combo, I meant smite as in the scepter skill. I mentioned you use smite + ww, meant smite condition.

You use them with the intention of placing the boons properly. If you do find your team suffering from craploads of conditions and it looks like no one is going to cleanse themselves, take the initiative and cleanse for them so they don’t end up breaking their rotations.

With celestial, you’ve got some options. Running 6 points in zeal means you have some sweet burning damage and the power boost isn’t too bad. Running 6 points in radiance gives you some really nice 1v1 DPS if you run sword. Running valour gives you a kittenton of sustain and fury if you trait for it. Running honour gives you really nice sustain and a huge chunk to your survivability. Running virtues is a big nono. My advice would be to run either zeal or radiance with either valour or honour with your remaining two points to be used at your discretion. As for utilities, either run meditations if you take valour or shouts if you run honour. Run mace if you run honour to offset the heals you lose by not taking valour. Running sword is a must in my opinion, since it procs VoJ every auto attack cycle. Take Balthazar runes if you run meditations. Take traveler runes if you run honour. As for sigils, I usually take smoldering and then something else.

Guard is supposed to be a team player. Interestingly enough, some if the best support comes from NON guardian classes. Just food for thought.

If the enemy team is almost entirely composed of one class, then its time to hardcounter. If you’re talking zergs, better whip out that aoe cleave.

Turrets and super condi builds. Yay for having the game play itself for us.

Thanks, I’ll try it.

I want to be able to deal good DoTs, control my target and be able to tank well (of course, not like a warrior or guardian).

Hi all, I’m new to Guild Wars 2 and have decided to roll as a human necromancer as my first character. After watching countless BWE videos (actually bought the game before launch, but couldn’t get a rig good enough to run it till recently) I decided to have a crack at one of the skill build calculators floating around on the interwebzz.

http://tinyurl.com/ay3hzp9

I’m also planning to use this for both PvE and sPvP.