Guild Wars 2

TL;DR

Summing it all up. The Guardian at the moment is a Tank-only profession, which only can do some kind of damage if you run the generic 0/30/30/5/5 with OH weapons or any slight variation. I’m looking for a new kind of Damage Guardian in order to make the class for versatile. We know it can tank and we know it can support, but i also know that it can’t deal enough damage to be competitive. By that matter, I’m offering fixes on the Zealous Blade traits and Amulets.

I wrote this awhile ago after getting tired of running hundreds of Damage Guardian builds and wasted over 1000 games trying to figure out a truly effective one. These are just my thoughts on the matter and i’m curious to know yours. Am i that wrong ? Am i right ? I don’t know.

Everyone wants to watch their ’’favorite’’ profession improve. With that in mind, we progress trying to find new builds and new play styles and that kind of variety is what is the main core of this game. You can’t simply run into a, let’s say Thief, or any class and know exactly what skills he has on his quick bar and what he is going to do, unlike most other MMOs.

At least, that was ArenaNet’s intention. I’m not going to get into the other professions here or WvW, our main topic here is going to be the Guardian and sPvP/tPvP. If you’re not interest on that matter, don’t bother to stay. It’s far too clear that ArenaNet thinks that Guardian is in a good position, and it indeed is. It can be a really tough profession that is hard to take down and hold a point for a few minutes with no great effort. But let’s go deeper into the class concept. Damage, tank, support and hybrid are the four general playing styles you can get yourself into when playing an MMO, Hybrid being any of the other three mixed with the other.
But when we open a new tab under those titles we can find quite a few new names. If you choose to kittenage you can be dps, burst, conditions and so on. If you choose tanking you can be healing, leeching, buff based, armor based, vitality based, etc etc. If you choose support you can be a buffer, debuffer, healer and bla bla bla. And ArenaNet’s great idea is to mix every ‘’sub-topic’’ on the playing styles in order to make a fluent and fun game, where no profession should have be stuck with only one style.

Now getting back to Guardian. We know that the Guardian can tank, we know it can support, but what about damage ? If we analyze the profession we will reach the conclusion that it is heading to a complete different way than it was intended, as well as the game in general. I feel like Guild Wars 2 is slowly turning into a game where every class has its own purpose instead of being able to play whatever kind of style you want. 9 out of the 10 times you get into a tournament, as a Guardian, people will expect you to bunk, because you’re a Guardian and you should tank. What are the variations we can have with the Guardian in order to play it competitively on tPvP ? Shout/Med Bunker, Tanky One-Handed Dps, and…uh…. that’s it. So most people don’t expect to run into a Guardian and get themselves bursted down in matter of seconds. That is because the Guardian is, actually, a healing/toughness tank. Most people run the ‘’generic build’’ and it’s slight variations, 0/0/30/30/10, 0/0/30/20/20 and, if you want to deal more damage, 0/30/30/5/5. If we take a good look into the three main generic Guardian built, we will easily reach the conclusion that Valor is the ‘’all-around’’ trait line, Radiance is the damage one and well…Zeal is the kittenty that nobody wants.

And there it is, in order for the Guardian to excel you need to be somewhat healing oriented. That’s why ArenaNet gave us the ‘’Zealous Blade’’ trait as Grandmaster on Zeal. ‘’Greatsword attacks heal you.’’ Wow, that sounds wonderful. You’re a Guardian, your strongest attribute is healing. With that trait you can be outrageous, you can have big numbers and heal yourself WOAH. But the trait sucks. Doesn’t heal you high enough to maintain you alive. It’s not worth to take it over Monk’s Focus or Altruistic Healing. Score for Valor.

But what would be a nice fix for Zealous Blade in order to make a burst build viable to Guardians ? Make it heal on crits only and escalate with healing power ? Only make it escalate with healing power ? Have a bigger base coefficient ? Who knows. These are simple ideas threw on the paper.

And not only that, in order to make the ’’Damage’’ builds on the Guardian viable, we would need a new amulet. The only hybrids we have right now are Soldiers (Pow/Tough/Vit) and Knight (Vit/Pow/Prec), which aren’t viable for a Guardian at all if it wants to be a hybrid. Soldiers has no Precision, and the Guardian needs precision in so many levels. Vigorous Precision, Empowering Might and such are key traits which are only activated by critical hits, so following that line, we should aim for Knight. But Knight has low Power and too much vitality, being vitality contradictory to healing, which will also lead to a low amount of toughness. What would make the Dps Guardian work fluently ? Pow/Prec/Tough or Pow/Prec/Heal, maybe with a little bit of Vitality like they did with Zerker and Valk or even mixing up a few of those stats more wisely, who knows.

Am i the only necro that actually thinks my class is overpowered ? (At least at tPvP)

Obtena.7952:

I don’t see the potential to avoid it’s attacks in PVP as breaking the weapon. I simply view it as a weapon that shouldn’t be expected to perform well in PVP, similar to the way that some people view certain weapons as underperforming in PVM.

I’m just going to speculate here but there is the possibility that sceptre sucking in PVP is an intentional effect. Anet devs write the rules on what a profession is capable of, not us. I think there has been enough hints dropped to suggest that the drop in performance at long ranges is part of the class definition.

Making our only ranged weapon not be usefull in PvP is kind of a dumb idea, don’t you think ? I know Arenanet can be stupid sometimes, but demn.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Furious-Knight-Built-WvW-Solo-Burst/

I did a few tweaks to it recently, but feel free to take a look at it

Longbow is probably what fits the profession the best, since it’s a weapon that we can summon as an Spirit Weapon. Sword, Hammer and Shield we can use, but what about Longbow ? Sounds like Anet had, beforehand, the idea of making Longbow useable by Guardians but for some reason they gave up on it.

kenzuro.1073:

No Longbow. Crossbow maybe.

A Crossbow ? What ? And make Anet design a whole new set of weapons, new skins and variations in order to fix this issue ? That’s just too far

Varyag.3751:

I’d only be for it if every other class got access to a new toy also.

I’m pretty sure some other classes could also use some new weapons aswell, Engineer lacks of melee just as much as Guardian lacks of range, for example.

I’d go for a cripple or even chill maybe

Honestly, i’d love being able to use a longbow, it’s a nice idea, but i don’t think Anet is ever going to give us that pleasure

Also, i didn’t really get into that bleeding thing >.>

Pukknub.7368:

I would love that. But unfortunately knight is power/vita/prec in spvp for some reason
It’s same here, I’m only playing bunker when I play spvp just because of that.

Yep, i still didn’t get why did they put vitality there and toughness on valk

Anyone else thinks we need a Pow/Prec/Tough Amulet in sPvP/tPvP ? I feel like it would make dps Guardians much more viable. It’s pretty boring to be forced to play bunker everytime you want to run tPvP competitively as a guardian.

Thoughts ?

Apologizes for bad english

I’ve been experiencing terrible lag spikes, my internet and computer are fine outside the game. It usually gets heavier after 18:00 PM GMT -3, but sometimes i get some freezes before that. It’s been over a week now, i’ve already tried downloading Battleping and changed the modem. It’s the second time i get these kinds of lags after a maintance and get absolutely zero pronounciation from Arenanet. Considering quitting the game already due to the terrible support.

Jade Quarry (NA) Server.

Svarty.8019:

[Quote]Arenanet said,
“They [deliberately] don’t have shadowsteps that will take them away from a fight, in particular”

“Once they get in, they are expected to stay in and to … keep going” (No, not “die” as everybody in the audience was doubtless expecting).

Quoted from this video, March 2013 State of the Game.

I think anet’s intention on Guardian is to make it easy to get into a battle and hard to run away. Once you’re in, you’re in.

Apotek.2189:

And vs Condition damage : You have the cure condition ofc, the Signet of resolve (cure every 10th sec) as well as the Whirl light-field combo finisher which removes conditions.

I dont think the Whirl removes conditions from yourself though Not positive on this, and the Signet of Resolve isnt something i would rely on. I personally think Shelter is better specially considering you have 25 in Valor

Again, that’s just me XD

How exactly would you do against a full condition enemy ? I can see Conditionmancers and Trap Rangers having an easy time with this build, considering you have barely no condition removal other than smite condition.

Zealous Blade is also pretty broken. Its not worth it. I wouldn’t take more than 10 points in zeal without a Spirit Weapon, just for Fiery Wrath. If you want to maintain 20 to have that extra power/greatsword damage, you could get those 10 points and put 5 into virtues and 5 into honor, then get inner fire on radiance line or even just 10 into virtues like the gentleman above said

Just my thoughts though

I’ve been having horrible lag these last few days ! Started out on Friday night/Saturday morning and is still kicking in, constantly. Feels like i have 2.000~5.000 ms, which to me, is unplayeable Did any maintance or anything happen ?

Must add that my internet is normal and i never really had lag issues with GW2.

Blasino.3128:

Sorem.9157:

Sounds like an interesting built ! It’s awkward that i started considering doing something like that just this week haha :P Was bored for a awhile and just started thinking about builts and bang ! Started to try to change Chris’s Healway to something more bursty and see what kind of outcome i would get haha ! Really curious about that ! I do have a few questions though :o Hope i’m not being annoying haha :)

Is there any way we can get a video with footages ? :o

How much crit. chance do you get with just the Oils and the Pies? Around 35~40% ?

Do you feel like you have enough survivability to charge in forehead against a zerg ?

I’m assumign that power is with your Greatsword ? How do you feel about your damage output ?

Thanks for sharing by the way :)

Not annoying at all! Discussion is how we all learn.

I really wish I could do video footage of my gameplay, but I’m not equipped to do it at the moment. And to a lesser extent I may embarrass myself ^_^.

The crit chance w/o the sigil is 40%.

I’m not sure how this build will handle charging into a Zerg =).

You are correct, that is the power with greatsword, for Mace/focus its: 2630. The damage output is satisfactory. What hurts it is the low crit damage. From a numbers standpoint compared to the Nina build it does about 30-40% less. Of course Nina hits pretty hard. With the smaller burst, there is still the benefit of retal to help with damage. I want to use Sigil of Blood to increase the self healing and damage, but the Generosity is hard to give up once you start using it.

I forgot to mention, that if you had two of the builds together, it would be crazy has they would improve each other greatly with more might stacking from empowering might more group condition removal and more group healing.

LOL i know that feeling XD i just downloaded the program to record 1 day before shooting and just put everything together on moviemaker lolol ! Was scared people would complain too much about the quality D: And was afraid i would be doing something terribly wrong on the gameplay Q.Q

Indeed ! I wanted to mix some of my Furious Knight setup into Chris’s Healway. I found that built to have waaaay too much survivability and mine has too heavy burst so i wanted to meet somewhere halfway there haha :)

Anyway :P thanks for the quick reply !

Sounds like an interesting built ! It’s awkward that i started considering doing something like that just this week haha :P Was bored for a awhile and just started thinking about builts and bang ! Started to try to change Chris’s Healway to something more bursty and see what kind of outcome i would get haha ! Really curious about that ! I do have a few questions though :o Hope i’m not being annoying haha

Is there any way we can get a video with footages ? :o

How much crit. chance do you get with just the Oils and the Pies? Around 35~40% ?

Do you feel like you have enough survivability to charge in forehead against a zerg ?

I’m assumign that power is with your Greatsword ? How do you feel about your damage output ?

Thanks for sharing by the way

akamon.2769:

ahh, good point SchuMidas – the long CD on rage would affect both hydromancy and ice. somehow i brushed Rage as not effecting the others because of the “lower proc rate”. not awake yet.

but yes, Sorem, i try not to mix on-swap or on-crit sigils in the same weaponsets. but as long as it works for ya. definitely agree – chill is one of my favorite “conditions” in this game thus far.

Yep haha indeed it’s very strong Don’t feel so attached to the built, most things over there is what fits my gameplay better :o You’ll rarely find somebody with the exact same as yours ! So feel free to do some changes so that it suits you better

akamon.2769:

@Blasino – do you mind elaborating the crit dmg list that you put together? i.e. how did you come to these conclusions. [edit: oops, misunderstood sth. so this can in a sense be seen as basically the least amount of stats you give up for crit dmg % on gear, yes? :PP]

@OP – heh, JQ i see. wonder if i’ve ever run into you. seems like a fun build! quick question though – won’t your sigils offset one another with CD’s? i guess Rage is okay since it’s on a 45s cooldown and procrate is lower. but do you feel ice and hydromancy ever clash? since ice won’t be able to trigger until after the CD on hydromancy is off. though, i tend to switch weapons a lot. :PP

I get enough procs on rage, and hydromancy is there aswell most of the times i switch. Ice usually, if its going to pop, it usually pops at the beggining because i do the openning with sword, whenever ir does it helps a lot tho. ZD can deal kittentons of damage but most of the times a big part of it is dodged so Ice helps a lot on that matter

Blasino.3128:

My first point is that you aren’t maximizing your stats. Your loosing points in power, precision, and toughness when use your current gear setup. Meaning by changing your gear to what I’m suggesting you can be increasing your damage while keeping your current survivability or keep your damage and increase your current survivability.

And after reading your build again, oils will increase your damage over stones even for that quick burst.

For the second point, I was not trying to cancel out what Amins is saying. He is right CoP is going to help your build.

I think i might have misunderstood your suggestion :o sorry, basically you said i should put ruby jewels on the trinkets and emerald orbs on the armor ? :o like…switch them ?

With Rare Ruby on armor and Exotic Emerald on trinkets i currently get:

195 Power
209 Precision
75 Toughness
12 Crit Dmg

If i switch to get Rare Emeralds on armor and Exotic Ruby on trinkets i would get:

209 Power
195 Precision
84 Toughness
17 Crit Dmg

Indeed it sounds better XD I guess i didn’t consider that because primarely i had runes of the lyssa :o thank you

Amins.3710:

Dump Save Yourselves and substitute Contemplation of purity.

Everyone Bleeds + ‘snares’ you, which turn into Speed + Regen. Plus as a meditation it’ll heal you.

Your survivability will go up tremendously.

Blasino.3128:

I think you could improve on your gearing. Since you are doing a burst build and mixing prefixes, your exquisite jewels should be +crit damage ones. For the rest of your gear, (non ascended) rings, helm, legs offer the best in terms of stat vs crit damage so those should be your knight’s. The chest piece would be next if you want another knight’s piece.

Also to maximize damage you need to get your crit chance close to your crit damage as you are wasting crit damage in your current build. 45% crit chance with a 70% crit damage (what you have currently) does less damage then going 50% crit chance and 65% crit damage. Now, sometimes this isn’t possible and the fact you have SY the fury helps a lot.

I feel like you 2 answered each other’s suggestion. Lol XD. The reason i run with save yourselves is mainly because i want that instant burst with some defensive boons whenever i need them I did run with 3 meditations for awhile and indeed, it does help tremendously against conditions plus that extra heal, but save yourselves offered me better control over my burst with defensive ability due to protection and regeneration.

I did run with Runes of the Lyssa for awhile, which gave me less crit dmg and more precision, plus some boons and condition removal but i found the orbs slightly better damage wise, but i might get nice RNG procs, who knows ? Haha ;P its hard to test that during combat ;P But either way, that’s why i suggested both Lyssa and Ruby Orbs

Amins.3710:

I’m So confused.

He first says DPS guardians basically suck / warriors will laugh at them.

Then goes on to say his DPS is Better.

Then go on to say DPS Guard is not neccesary & ‘possibly bad (?)’.

Then “I will run a DPS build now”….

/boggle

This !

This thread is making me giggle lolol

kidbs.8920:

Sorem.9157:

kidbs.8920:

As crappy as the scepter is, I would still choose that over the 1-hand sword. You will consistently land more hits against kiters and ranged players with it over the 1-hand sword, plus you will get a root and semi-decent burst ability in smite.

I know the thought is that 1-hand sword will give you another gap closer if you are using it along with GS, but one problem that you will face will be if someone puts a chill effect or snare on you and you are not able to cleanse it. It will effectively halve the distance that you can leap.

Scepter has a slow/low damage auto attack, plus a good player will manage to dodge at least 50% of the bubbles from distance, i find it better to gap into them and melee with the sword or swap to greatsword for greater burst. But that’s personal opinion haha XD

Smite from scepter is one of of the highest dps attacks we have. Chains of Light followed by Smite can do several thousands in damage. Also, your opponent is just as likely to dodge your sword attacks. Assuming that you are constantly closing in on your target and are within 600 feet of them, scepter will hit them reliably, much more so than melee.

There are far too many ways for people to get out of melee range and we do not have many ways to stick on someone even with our gap closers. Keep in mind that the other melee classes can stick to their opponents better and have much more massive burst to lay on them when they do reach them. You really need to have something on you to continue doing damage once your target gets out of melee range (think of snares, roots, elevation differences).

I guess it’s a matter of taste and of what you’re used to Haha, we could discuss this further but it would eventually turn into an argument and that’s not the goal here ;P I did use scepter for awhile and it didnt feel very versatile for me, because if the enemy decided to glue on me as soon as i switched i would have to play defensively because he could simply outburst me, maybe i was doing it wrong tho XD who knows :P Feel free to use the scepter tho haha if you managed to make that work, having a ranged weapon is always a nice thing ! XD

Kamil.1039:

I tried to make build with greastword, to make as high damage as its possible
So here it is

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQNAR7flYg67WGSNEm4Ehli/RwqHx7e27ShDpIA

elite and utility skills can be changed, but the question is which armor set would be better ( and which elite/utility skills would be better )

• power precision and critical damage
  or
  *power precision thoughness

Im looking for honest answer, im not really expierienced guardian ( just started to play )

You might like this one

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Furious-Knight-Built-WvW-Solo-Burst

Make sure to read everything There’s a footage video at the end of it

Panzerjaeger.7612:

But…wait a minute. My boyfriend is Statics.

WAAAAAAAAAAAH!

LOLOLOLOL

kidbs.8920:

As crappy as the scepter is, I would still choose that over the 1-hand sword. You will consistently land more hits against kiters and ranged players with it over the 1-hand sword, plus you will get a root and semi-decent burst ability in smite.

I know the thought is that 1-hand sword will give you another gap closer if you are using it along with GS, but one problem that you will face will be if someone puts a chill effect or snare on you and you are not able to cleanse it. It will effectively halve the distance that you can leap.

Scepter has a slow/low damage auto attack, plus a good player will manage to dodge at least 50% of the bubbles from distance, i find it better to gap into them and melee with the sword or swap to greatsword for greater burst. But that’s personal opinion haha XD

Amins.3710:

Yes, but having 3 blinks and 3 blinds is priceless.

I run a similar build very often and it’s in plent of videos where I even give up the 25 pt in Honor for 5 in Radiance, to make for 3 Blinks/Ports and 4 Blinds.

Priceless. Talk about Damage Negation… combined w/ blocks/Invuln… awesome.

Yep yep, its not about sucking up damage, the goal of the survivability here is to avoid/block the damage ! My friend (warrior) was shocked about how much damage negation i had on him and he couldn’t handle half a hundred blade ! XD All you gotta do is keep an eye on the opponent to block the key skills ;P

I’ve been considering to switch those points aswell but i always eventually forget to do it lol >.>

Cayl Bourne.8073:

Retaliation is easily countered in pvp. Your enemy does not have to hit you… They can easily hit your friend instead. Or strip your boon. The balance would obviously be in the numbers. As it is currently people build Power/Vit/Tough and retaliation scales with power (albeit only slightly).

They way I see it a tanky retaliation player can be ignored or at least saved for last. It could be too strong on a Power/Prec/Cond spec’d glass cannon though because you would be guaranteed to win any “race to the bottom” type scenario.

Not having to hit somebody is a big deal actually, whenever its necessary to burst down that guy that hits like a truck and you cant do it because retaliation is too strong. Plus, we aren’t just talking about guardians here, since other classes can have retaliation aswell as we can give it to them

More variety is always welcome, but the big deal here is trying to make that balanced. Making retaliation scale up with condition damage could make it a little overpowered, since you could get rabid stat itens and be toughy with kittentons of retaliation damage, which would be imbalanced, specially on spvp. For some reason, to me, retaliation feels like a really strong boon, i guess that gets evident whenever you see a thief unload you from distance and the retaliation starts to tick up.

BurnWeed.5902:

Thats nearly the same set up that i’ve been using for a long while.
Interesting use of purging flames > cast >focus#5 (blast =might) > weapon swap > Gs #4 (will give you 99% of the time retaliation AND flame aura) > Gs#2 (burning)

That would negate the point of Monk’s Focus XD I did try out Purging Flames for awhile and didnt think it was worth it due to the lack of healing/burst. I love the fire field though, thats why i use it on pve XD

tanshiniza.8629:

When it comes down to Mesmers I use hammer and GS for the aoe so they never really get the chance to use their illusions to their full effect. Though I did fight one the other day that had full berserker gear and also stacked bleeding and I have to say the damage I took was just unreal.

The hammer also works REALLY great vs. mesmers ! The root is such a big deal combined with the burst dmg u will ge on them. Mesmers have distortion, that way they can easily avoid burst skills with long animations (ZD and WW) so Mighty Blow shines here, but u gotta force them into defensive, otherwise they will probably get ya down without the mobility/defense of sword focus.

eleven.3170:

Sorem, nice build. If you could get a 1on1 with a mesmer, that’d be great.
2 teleports is nice but I’m worried I’ll be wasting it on a clone.
I’m curious on how will you handle that. TIA.

Finding the real mesmers can be annoying sometimes, but u just gotta pay attention and remember: Clones don’t jump, dodge or even barely move. Make sure to always keep that in mind and whenever you run into a big load of clones make sure to dodge, because unless they know you are confused, they will prob shatter. If you happen to lose track of the real one u gotta switch to a defensive mode till he decides to pop up Feel free to whisper me in game if you wanna fight, im usually online around 9 PM (GMT -3), on Jade Quarry server.

eleven.3170:

Sorem, nice build. If you could get a 1on1 with a mesmer, that’d be great.
2 teleports is nice but I’m worried I’ll be wasting it on a clone.
I’m curious on how will you handle that. TIA.

Thanks for the feeedback XD

Finding the real mesmers can be annoying sometimes, but u just gotta pay attention and remember: Clones don’t jump or dodge or even barely move. Make sure to always keep that in mind and whenever you run into a big load of clones make sure to dodge, because unless they know you are confused, they will prob shatter. If you happen to lose track of the real one u gotta switch to a defensive mode till he decides to pop up Feel free to whisper me in game if you wanna fight, im usually online around 9 PM (GMT -3), on Jade Quarry server.

Too easily countered by stability, not worth it

NondSwiftshot.9168:

Thanks for sharing your build. I’m currently still gearing and using SilentStorm’s Paladin build. I will give this a whirl when I get my COF gear! I’ve been seeing more videos of people running mace / shield too but I like your usage of sword / focus.

Glad to hear that man Feel free to ask if ya have any doubts ! Im a big fan of sword now because it has such a great mobility and combined with focus, which can be used defensively OR offensively it is a great threat. Mace has a really good burst on #3 plus it heals and combined with the shield which has a good defensive weapon you can get a good synergy. I just prefer sword focus here because this built requires fast reactions and mobility to dish out a lot of damage all at once. But again xD dont hold yourself back from trying mace shield :P anything on this game is a matter of play style! If this build gets more feedback i might even upload some more footage and explain its gameplay further

Yep, here it is. Sorry about that, had to make the topic in a rush. I’m also uploading some footage i got yesterday with this built on WvW. I apologize beforehand for the TERRIBLE (lol) quality and video editing. It was the first time i was ever recording a video or editing one and found out my computer couldn’t handle doing it on a better quality

I hope you enjoy the footage anyway though

There you go The video is ready http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjvmr5-S3ng&feature=youtu.be

Changing to PvE (Dungeon)

It’s my personal preference to run AH on dungeons because there is always somebody around so, whenever i’m going to run dungeons i just have to do some changes on the minor traits and utilities

Monk’s Focus for Altruistic Healing
Meditation Mastery for Retributive Armor* (Optional)
Two-Handed Mastery for Empowering Might
Wrathful Spirit for Superior Aria
Judge’s Intervention for ‘’Hold the Line!’’
Smite Condition for Purging Flames* which is also optional, i just like the Fire Field and group support it gives.

For a better look: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR8dlUg67mFyMEfIFRugqCxDnBGh/1DK6QGC;T8AA2yoEQJhSFlCKqiMFJKyWkrIZRrLGjsBB

And boom ! You’re ready to tank some dungeons while dishing out some cool damage.

Adds

For the Food i like to run with Omnomberry Pies and Superior Sharpening Stones. For that extra heal and burst

I’d like to say that the Guardian is indeed a really strong profession. This built is not a cookie cutter nor it is a glass cannon (though it does lean for offensive setup) nor it’s a tanker or frontline crasher.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me on the Forums or In-game. My Guardian is called Saelium, Mail or PM me if you have any questions about the built. Please leave your feedback below so i can know what you guys thought of it

Sorry if i had any ortographic mistakes, english is not my first language and i’m still learning lol

Here’s some footage i’ve got with this built: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjvmr5-S3ng&feature=youtu.be

Furious Knight (WvW Solo)

I’m usually pretty wavering on sharing my builts because i don’t want to have to face them myself but, due to popular demand, i thought about making a topic explaining it. This built consists on dishing out quick and fast damage meanwhile having a few burst heals to survive the fight. If you do your kiting right and time your blocks, this build CAN have a decent survivability. But it is not a bunker built. I LOVE it for Roaming solo in WvW. This built is REALLY adapteable, so you can pattern it the way it feels more confortable for you. And later on i’ll explain how i prefer to pattern it to PvE for Dungeons

Gearing
I run with full Berserker stats armor and weapons (Pow/Prec/Crit) and Emerald Trinkets with Knight Jewels. Currently for the Backpiece i have the Guild one with P/V/T and a Beryl Jewel, but thats pretty much optional and you can get the one that u feel that completes your stats the best.

I use Greatsword as main weapon, with Superior Sigil of Rage, which is interchangeable for Superior Sigil of Strenght. Most people dont like Rage because it has a long cooldown and short activation time, which also cant be controlled. That is indeed true. But if that sigil pops on the right time before you land that perfect whirling wrath, its almost a guaranteed kill.

As a secondary weapon set i use Sword/Focus with Superior Sigil of Ice on the Sword and Superior Sigil of Hydromancy on the Focus. The reason for that is that i usually open up the fight with my secondary weapon set and after that i switch to the greatsword if the burst is necessary. And nothing makes bursting easier than a good CC.

If you prefer a more bursty style i could also recommend the Hammer, which i used to run for awhile, or even Scepter/Focus for more ranged control. The reason i choose Sword/Focus over those is that i found the sword to have a nice mobility with Flash combined with decent damage and the Focus has nice defensive/burst options due to Shield of Wrath.

I Recommend running Glacial Heart instead of Purity if you’re running around with a Hammer. The reason for that is merely for CCing power. The hammer is a great BURST weapon, which combined a well timed CC can be deadly.

As for Runes, i Highly recommend Lyssa. The extra boons are really awesome, plus the (6) Bonus is a great help. If you’re still on gearing up process or want more burst, a good call is going for Ruby Orbs. I’ve tried it, they work.
Traits and Skills

Skills and Traits

Shelter – ‘’Save Yourselves!’’ – Judge’s Intervention – Smite Condition* – Renewed Focus

10 – Fiery Wrath
0
30 – Meditation Mastery – Purity* – Monk’s Focus
25 – Wrathful Spirit – Empowering Might*
5

For a better look: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR8dlUg67GHSNEfIFRugqCxDnhGh/1DI6wGC;T8AA2yoEQJhSFlCKqiMFJKyWkrIZRrLGjsBB

PS: If the link doesn’t work, copy paste it on your browser

• Interchangeable:
  Shelter for Signet of Resolve for smaller fights and more condition removal
  Smite Condition for Contemplation of Purity for more conditon removal
  Purity for Glacial Heart if you’re using a Hammer
  Empowering Might for Two-Handed Mastery for more damage control

Pros and Cons

It has great mobility provided by the Meditations with Sword/Greatsword, which combined with a bursty setup can be deadly. If you take a quick look on the traits they are more leaned towards defense, which is why this is slightly tougher than a Glass Cannon built. Your main weakness will be skilled players using Healing Builts. You probably won’t be able to burst them down since we dont have many interrupts here. But they probably won’t be able to kill you either (lol) so it’s either going to be a 10 minutes fight or somebody will bait. Ranged will always be a problem, but that’s mostly because we lack of strong ranged abilities, which is why i choose to get all the gap closers possible in order to not get kited at all.

I’ve never had a problem with any specific class and never had trouble killing anyone that doesn’t run Healing Builts. I tried to make everything on this built connect in order to get the most of everything. In fact, the reason i like Shelter so much is because it combos so well with Might of the Protector (Valor 25) that it’s hard to replace it for the Signet. Yes, it is possible to hit 25 stacks of might that way, thats why i recommend it for bigger fights.

Razor.9132:

Sorem.9157:

Symbols are fine the way they are.

They are really not. I won’t bother explaining why because it has been mentioned a dozen of times on forums. If you choose to stay ignorant that’s alright, but if you intend to come out big on forums please do get your facts straight.

Sorem.9157:

Guardian isn’t meant to be a ranged class, at this point it should be evident to everyone.

I see this in nearly every thread like this one. Seriously, where do people pick up lines like this?! Are you a profession designer at ANet? No? Then stop making up stuff like that.

If my memory still serves me right towards the end of the betas one of the devs made it clear that they had a viable ranged option in their minds but it didn’t make it live because they had to focus on release.

Sorem.9157:

Dealing with it is better than QQing at the forums about it.

Then deal with the fact that most of your claims simply don’t hold true (or that we are all wrong, which is what your posts suggest anyway) and continue playing while the rest of us who can see through the nice things at being a guardian actually try to improve the areas where guardians clearly lack.

EDIT: Errors.

I’ll say it again, overall, the Guardian is fine the way it is right now. If you buff it, it would turn out to be an Overpowered profession, and if you nerf it, well, it would turn out weak.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

Warriors have more readily viable builds. Warriors have (way) more damage potential. Warriors have far more viable weapon and trait options. Warrior survival can be absolutely insane if built for, primarily through the use of healing shouts and banners.

Guardian survival can be absolutely insane if built for. I don’t see any issue with either the sword or scepter. Virtues are, in fact, miserably weak unless traited for.

On paper, Warriors are superior to Guardians. In practice, when’s the last time I actually shivered in my bootsies when I saw an enemy Warrior (…or Guardian) on the field?

Just my two copper.

There you go, this is my point and it’s what i was wishing for everybody to underestand. I don’t care if you think this or that thing are weak and i see it otherwise, or i find something weak and you love it. It’s all a matter of taste.

What i am tired to see are posts about separated things that the Guardian have being compared to another separated thing that the Warrior has. It annoys me for some reason. I haven’t lost for a Warrior for so long. Whatever anyone prefer isn’t my business, really. What i wanted to point out is that Guardian is really strong, and if you want to play it at it’s full potential you shouldn’t spend your time comparing it to the Warrior. Because if you look at the individual skills/traits you will think that the Warrior is indeed a stronger class. Which really isn’t true.

A great example of your traits synergy is Vigorous Precision, Selfless Daring and Elusive Power. Everything combines and i can’t see that on the Warrior traits. Stuff that you can actually built up to work together in order to get max benefits out of it.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

I don’t think it was ever intended to be used with torch 4. It’s more of an issue of no other profession having this trait (yet).

I mean, I’d be pretty furious if someone set ME on fire.

Unless you do it yourself, right ?

Archer.1658:

Sorem.9157:

^ Frustrated player because he can’t play Guardian right. Don’t hate at the profession, really. Guardian does provide awesome support, i’d say go for it.

Yeah don’t listen to me OP.

He’s right, dont listen to him :o

Bakitten291:

Sorem.9157:

1) What i said on firsthand is far from true in PvP indeed, when you’re into PvP, you wont sit and dps one target for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, i agree totally with you here. Indeed it was a bad way to express myself, maybe simply because i thought it was too obvious to mention it.

2) The Guardian traits are indeed fine. There are kittenloads of posts around the forum that are saying that Warriors have THIS trait that is better than our version of it.

3) Being able to lock somebody on your symbol from ranged would make it simply far too overpower. Symbols are fine the way they are. Guardian isn’t meant to be a ranged class, at this point it should be evident to everyone.

3) Sword and Scepter do have some serious flaws.

4) I never said i didn’t think so. People claim that virtues are too weak when they can provide great changes on the battle, be it solo or group.

5) Gap closers, Mediations. Warrior’s burst, as you said yourself, is easier to avoid than ours, that should make us even, no ?

6) They shine in different areas. I’m secure of my skill with the Guardian, i’m saying both classes have different playstyles. >TO ME<, again, TO ME, the Guardian feels stronger because of the fact it suits me better.

7) I won’t bother replying that. Dealing with it is better than QQing at the forums about it.

Not this type of thread again… oh well I guess I will bite.

2)Guardian Traits are NOT fine. When it is almost mandatory from a defensive and offensive standpoint to spec 30 into a trait line for almost every build, its an issue.

3) Yes, because having that symbol do 1 tick of damage is worth wasting your time to even cast it… Symbols are weak because we have almost zero ways to keep people inside them. Both allies and enemies for that fact. Also, as far as not being meant to be ranged, I can understand, however, that doesn’t help the fact that we have limited ways to keep people next to us without using long cooldowns.

3-2) Scepter could use a boost, I still argue that Sword is OK as is, (though it COULD use a little more damage on the #2 ability) But this is coming from someone who has pretty much focused on making builds around the 1h sword.

4) This once again comes down to traits. Virtues can be very strong when traited for them. Sadly the only way you can get into virtues far enough to make a difference is with a bunker build. I don’t think I have seen any DPS builds that have been able to go past 5 in virtues without sacrificing a ton of damage. And this all comes back to requiring the 30 in valor.

5) This I would say is off. In some cases yes, warriors have a harder time landing burst because it is honestly very predictable. quickness + 100b is so common its kind of sickening so most good players watch for it. However I would say that warriors do have an easier time landing attacks because of their amount of control through cripples, knockdowns and immobilizes. Something we lack desperately. Gap closers and whatnot are fine, but even if you leap of faith into a WW, that person is still running fast enough to make you miss almost all of the attack.

Overall I think Both classes do have their own unique feel and gameplay, and each can hold their own. The issue is that for an almost strictly melee class, guardians just don’t have the skills to keep up and keep damage on people. This is also an issue with us having zero ranged options as well.

I won’t bother argueing with somebody who can’t use the tools they have. It’ll be like talking to a wall. Lol.

^ Frustrated player because he can’t play Guardian right. Don’t hate at the profession, really. Guardian does provide awesome support, i’d say go for it.

Alarox.4590:

Tomkatt.1684:

Alarox.4590:

4.) You basically say that Virtues are overpowered, if you don’t think so too then you must be an idiot who spams them all at once.

LOL, excuse me while I spam all 3 of my Virtues to buff my allies and burn mobs, heal 2/3rds of my health via Altruistic Healing, and then block for 3 seconds with with Renewed Focus and get my virtues back.

I was pointing out that he said that, not that I think that.

Try fighting without using your virtues, they make a huge difference.

Archer.1658:

Warrior is better in every aspect besides FOTM. Prove me wrong.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/This-is-why-your-WARRIOR-SUCK-Part-1/

nikko.1908:

“Comparing them and saying one is better than the other is just like comparing apples and pears. They are different, they are used for different situations.” used for different situations? Lolls.

We are the apples <3

Electro.4173:

OneManArmy.5617:

You get the boons when you manually leave the tomes transformation.

I’m pretty sure you can’t manually end tomes early.

Hit the elite skill key again.

Magic.

Alarox.4590:

Every thread like this is either:

1.) Guardians are awesome, Warriors suck.

2.) Warriors are awesome, Guardians suck.

---

A few problems I feel like mentioning (which will likely be replied to with either a sweeping generalization in an attempt to invalidate my specific arguments, or equally flawed statements).

1.) “Sustained DPS”

Basically, it’s saying that even though you lack burst, your auto-attack spamming deals enough damage. Warriors also have auto-spamming. The people I see claim this the most are the Pow/Tuf/Vit AH builds that hit enemies with a wet noodle.

Actually, both professions can build for burst. The only difference there is that when you build for damage, the Warrior is high risk/reward while the Guardian’s is overall less but easier to land. For example, Mighty Blow vs Eviscerate. 100b vs Whirling Wrath.

The only time this argument has validity is when you have an offensive Guardian with the Sword or Greatsword, or a Hammer in PvE

2.) “Guardian traits are fine. Learn to think”. Poor logic.

3.) Your claims about symbols can be true, but not always. You’re basically just describing how to use symbols when someone attacks you in melee. In other words, you’re saying that symbols aren’t bad, because you should use them when someone walks next to you.

Actually, I agree that symbols are mostly fine the way they are, but I think they could use more utility options for area control.

3.) “Guardians have only 1 flaw”. In other words, “everything about Guardians is perfect the way it is except 1h weapons”. First, 1h weapons can be quite good depending on the build and the usage. Second, I probably shouldn’t even go on as you basically lose credibility by this statement.

4.) You basically say that Virtues are overpowered, if you don’t think so too then you must be an idiot who spams them all at once.

5.) You say Warriors aren’t superior to Guardians in any way whatsoever. How about offensive buffing? Burst? Ranged damage? Burst healing?

6.) You basically say that if you don’t also think Guardians are completely superior to Warriors, then you must not be able to handle the Guardian since they require more thinking.

7.) Not every situation is favorable to be in melee, in fact many ensure almost instant death. In addition, your logic is flawed. For example, imagine if you had a profession that dealt damage to itself and healed enemies when attacking. By your logic, ArenaNet doesn’t need to change that, and anyone playing that profession should just not attack. You’re basically saying that it doesn’t matter if something is unbalanced, the players should just deal with it.

1) What i said on firsthand is far from true in PvP indeed, when you’re into PvP, you wont sit and dps one target for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, i agree totally with you here. Indeed it was a bad way to express myself, maybe simply because i thought it was too obvious to mention it.

2) The Guardian traits are indeed fine. There are kittenloads of posts around the forum that are saying that Warriors have THIS trait that is better than our version of it.

3) Being able to lock somebody on your symbol from ranged would make it simply far too overpower. Symbols are fine the way they are. Guardian isn’t meant to be a ranged class, at this point it should be evident to everyone.

3) Sword and Scepter do have some serious flaws.

4) I never said i didn’t think so. People claim that virtues are too weak when they can provide great changes on the battle, be it solo or group.

5) Gap closers, Mediations. Warrior’s burst, as you said yourself, is easier to avoid than ours, that should make us even, no ?

6) They shine in different areas. I’m secure of my skill with the Guardian, i’m saying both classes have different playstyles. >TO ME<, again, TO ME, the Guardian feels stronger because of the fact it suits me better.

7) I won’t bother replying that. Dealing with it is better than QQing at the forums about it.

Hah ! Got you ! Bet you thought this would be another generic post about ‘’WARRIORS HAS COOLER STUFF THAN WE DO’’ ! Well, you were wrong.

Why did i bother openning this thread ? Well, if you like something, you should get annoyed when people keep insisting that that thing is trash.

I’m here to tell you, or try to, THAT GUARDIANS ARE NOT, IN ANYWAY, INFERIOR TO WARRIORS. Comparing them and saying one is better than the other is just like comparing apples and pears. They are different, they are used for different situations.

A Guardian has a very large boon/healing pool, combined with awesome SUSTAINED dps. A Warrior in the other hand, has a big burst, combined with a not-that-high survivability.

You may say that warriors have stronger traits, and that MIGHT be true BUT, if we look at the big picture, you’ll see the cake is a lie ! Guardian traits have a great synergy, just take a deep look into it and you can make it work. It just requires more thinking.

If you say symbols are useless, im gonna say you just dont know how to place them. The symbols arent something to be used as a burst skill. It’s a counter burst. You gotta place it when you know youre gonna get your kitten kittened OR you can time it with a stun/immobilize to deal high ammounts of damage. The symbol isnt going to help you surviving. Thits going to help you to outdamage your opponent’s burst.

Guardians have only 1 flaw, which are the 1 handeds. But that’s my personal opinion. Sword feels kinda sloopy for PvP and so does Scepter.

Virtues ? Hah ! Virtues are so powerfull its even kinda stupid. Such an easy boon source which can provide support to all those around you. Use them to your advantage, dont just pop them all at once.

Again, Warriors aren’t superior to Guardians in ANYWAY. Guardians just require more thinking Honestly to me, the Guardians DO feel like the strongest profession.

Mad because you can’t burst at ranged ? Well, get your kitten into the fight then.

I’ve been on this legion for awhile and also gotta admit it has some potential And Bob has big plans for it. Had great runs with them, and whenever we have some people online the chat turns pretty talkative on a light and nice mood