Guild Wars 2

Kelnis.1829:

I am very confident that i’ll be able to break 30k once I get a bit of outside help.

Looks like you are fairly close! Wonder if you can make it without help from a party member – remember you can use Sigil of Night for an extra 5% instead of Force, and battle on a staff with empower

Unfortunately you don’t have access to a blast finisher with a staff, but you can perhaps drop Hallowed Ground before you initiate your leap to proc a Fire Shield ( Might when struck ) and give burning bolts to your whirl finisher ( which will keep Fiery Wrath going for the duration ). You’ll have to use Courage to refresh Aegis instead of Retreat

from a pure “ideal conditions” numbers perspective, the highest effective power is to be had from 20 into Zeal and a sceptre, thanks to the buff in the last patch.

Using Kelnis’ +10% undead food buffs (but not accounting for fury, might and bloodlust), buildcraft shows an effective power just below 12k with 20,30,10,0,10.

A GS with Mastery would get you just above 10k.

With a sword or mace, you’d want to be 10,30,20,0,10 (with respective masteries) for 11.5k effective.

I’ve not been able to break 10k mark with 30 in Zeal unfortunately (9.95k)

The harder builds to quantify are the ones designed to stack might and vulnerability. Using sigils of battle and a staff, focus and purging flames blast you can reach about 21 stacks for a few seconds, but then you lose the potential 15 stacks of vulnerability from the GS leap. ( but you can still get 6 stacks of vulnerability with flashing blade + VoJ ).
You can one-shot a group of heavy golems in the Mists with Shield of Wrath stacking that way.

Yeah I think it’s about a 40% hike in stats, but I’m not sure of the exact formula

Also in terms of boons:

1000 damage with 100% crit = 2500
1000 damage with 100% crit and 15 stacks of might = 3812 (1312) eg. after Empower and Battle Sigil proc
1000 damage with 100% crit and 15 stacks of vulnerability = 2875 (375) eg. GS Leap into 5 targets with Blind Exposure traited
1000 damage with 100% crit, 15 stacks of might and vulnerability = 4384 (+1884)

( I chose 15 stacks, because they are readily achievable by a guardian if traited for, higher is possible – although your average is likely to be significantly lower )

and to be clear, in priority:

Allies = Party Members -> Party Members’ Pets -> Other Players/Pets -> NPCs

DoctorNieves.6059:

yLoon.5289:

HI OP, you mean, you wanna hit like this? >.>

Hi, can you tell me your build and armor? im trying to decide if keep playing my warrior or make a guardian and give twilight to him

Bear in mind it’s a level 78 kodan npc with 15 stacks of vulnerability ;-)

For that test or generally?

For the test I think I would have used 0,30,30,0,10 ( or perhaps 10,20,30,0,10 or even 10,25,25,0,10 )

Generally I rarely stick to the same build in WvW and change traits/armor several times a day to suit the composition of the opposing forces.

My favourite morning roaming DPS build is currently 0,30,30,5,5 ( full zerker, ascended ) – Bane Signet + 2 meditations, but I’ll change up to something more robust by midday when encountering zergs or full groups is more likely. By the end of the day I’m in full bunker & support.

Basically I have about 5 armour sets and 3 of every weapon in my inventory, with different runes and sigils so I can switch as required.

Yup to add to CMF’s comment.

As I mentioned, the guardian has access to a lot of damage multipliers ( +10% fiery wrath, +20% unscathed contender, +10% Radiant Power etc etc ) – these modify the sum of any particular skill’s damage, so extra power also increases the effective damage bonus..

CptAurellian.9537:

Have they finally fixed runes of strength? Last time I was asking, I was told the the 5% bonus does not work properly and and a short test in the Mists seemed to confirm that. Besides, you forgot something: Ruby orbs instead of runes

Not used strength myself – had forgotten it was broken, thanks. Removed them from the list.

Added about the orbs, told you I had forgotten something important ;-)

High dps is all about damage modifiers and Might with the guardian.

I won’t list any builds, because you should find a balance for what you are comfortable with. You can achieve numbers no matter what gear or play style you have, provided you build around a few key traits:

Traits

• Zeal – Fiery Wrath: +10% damage to burning targets, and thankfully guardian has so many sources of burn that it’s hard not to set someone on fire.
• Zeal – Blinding Jeopardy – 5 stacks of vulnerability for immobalizing a foe ( Sceptre #3 or Hammer #3 ) – 5 stacks will increase damage by 5%. ( but, tbh it’s better to take Blind Exposure in Radiance )
• Radiance – Blind Exposure – Applies 3 stacks of vulnerability ( +3% dmg ) to any foes you blind. The real key with this one is a quirk with Greatsword #3 which multiplies the vulnerability depending on how many enemies you hit ( up to 5 times ) which equates to up to a whopping +15% damage if you leap into a group.
• Radiance – Right-Hand Strength +15% crit chance with one handed weapons – For high dps builds you want to try and crit as much as possible, this trait helps immensely.
• Radiance – Radiant Power +10% damage against foes with conditions and they’ll most likely have burning, blind or vulnerability ( if you traited for it ).
• Valor – Retributive Armor: +5% of toughness is given to precision
• Honor – Elusive Power: +10% dmg if your stamina bar isn’t full
• Honor – 2-Handed Mastery: with a hammer or staff this means you can generate a lot of Might ( using blast finishers on the former and Empower on the latter ) – 10 stacks of might is +350 power ( at level 80 )
• Honor – Empowering might – ( see above ) can get you near permanent 5 stacks of might on a high crit build. ( not only for you but also your allies )
• Virtues – Unscathed Contender – +20% damage whilst under the effect of aegis. If you are looking for maximum surprise burst, then you can go for this, but the benefit disappears almost instantly in a fight. But you can pre-empt a high damage skill mid fight by popping Virtue of Courage or Retreat! to make sure you have aegis just before the skill lands.
• Virtues – Power of the Virtuous – +1% extra damage for every boon you have.

You’ll have to work out which traits you can achieve without sacrificing too much survivability. There are also various traits for giving +5 and +10% damage boosts, which you can and sometimes should choose depending on your preferred weapon.

Sigils

• Battle: 3 stacks of might for 20 seconds every 10 seconds (with a weapon switch).
• Force: +5% dmg
• Night: +10% dmg at night ( does actually stack with Force, but you need to keep it on a secondary weapon, since it’s useless during the day )
• Accuracy: +5% crit chance
• Perception: Up to +250 precision with 25 stacks of perception. Keep this on a second weapon, and use it only to charge up your perception stacks, then revert to your main weapon.
• Bloodlust: Up to +250 power with 25 stacks. As above, keep on a secondary weapon. You can only have either perception or bloodlust, not both at the same time ( so choose whichever one you lack the stats for ).
• Fire: Flame blast on crit – nice AoE dmg booster – has a 1.0 damage coefficient with power.
• Air: Lightning strike on crit – higher damage than Fire, but only single target ( 1.1 coefficient dmg )

Runes

• Scholar: For surprise burst build only. +8% crit dmg and a massive +10% dmg boost if your health is above 90 ( basically only at the start of a fight ). Good for Shield of Wrath bombing, but not so good for sustaining your DPS
• Divinity: +12% crit dmg and minor boost to power and precision. ( good all rounder )
• Ruby Orbs: 6x Ruby orbs for +12% crit damage, +120 power and +84 precision – highest reliable armor damage bonus, although you have no effect synergies and no defensive stats. ( they are also much cheaper than Divinity Runes )
• Strength: +20% might duration.
• Eagle: +8% crit dmg, +5% damage against foes with < 50% health. Good.
• Ogre: +3% crit dmg, +4% damage
• Flame Legion: only for burn/symbol focused builds, +5% dmg against burning foes.

Other

• Burning and Retaliation: The guardian also has ready access to these, which while on their own aren’t particularly strong effects, both serve to increase a player’s overal damage output.
• Reflection: there’s only one thing better than doing high damage, and that’s letting an enemy do high damage to themselves.
• Revenge of the Fallen: 50% more damage whilst downed. OP!!! ( ok, this one is a joke )

There are definitely more options I’ve missed, but for the sake brevity I haven’t included everything ( or can’t think of them off the top of my head )

ok in the mists can get >6k strikes against a heavy golem, with or without Radiant Fire traited

Is this for spvp? I’m still get 9k hits against orrian trash and wvw players

Lord Sarok.4369:

Rune of Lyssa #6 Does not trigger upon activating Tomes.

I believe it does if you actively cancel the tome before the transform wears off

an american phrase about keeping to your diet… probably

Parthis.2091:

I’d like a “pull an ally to you” ability. A way of getting a guild to you if he’s over extended

That’s what I’ve always wanted Merciful Intervention to be. ( or at least a “pull downed ally to your location” )

CMF.5461:

…
Pure of Heart – 0.1
…

The above are the healing power coefficients for each skill. I am unsure if they are out of date now with the new patch as I haven’t read through it all just yet.

Pure of Heart is 0.25 now, so with 1k HP, you get about 900 healing every time Aegis breaks

With the 10% dmg trait, it can crit for 3k now on a glassy build. As Akamon says, just forget that it’s a ranged weapon ( or combine it with CC ).

BTW chains of light on a similar build now does around 1k of damage when it lands

Guardian:

• Orb of Wrath: Increased the projectile speed of this skill by 30%.
• Wrathful Strike: Increased the might duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Signet of Judgment: This ability now breaks stuns. Increased the cooldown to 30 seconds.
• Shield of the Avenger: Command: This ability now breaks stuns.
• Chains of Light: This ability now deals a small amount of damage.
• Signet of Mercy: Reduced the cooldown to 150 seconds.
• Bane Signet: Reduced the cooldown to 40 seconds.
• Purifying Blast: Fixed the skill fact damage amounts.
• Refraction: Decreased the cast time from 1.3 seconds to .5 seconds.
• Tome of Wrath: Smiter’s Boon: This trait now applies to the caster as well.
• Sanctuary: Fixed an issue where Consecrated Ground was also reducing the cast time of this skill.
• Virtue of Justice: Updated the skill fact to correctly display the actual burning duration when the skill is activated.
• Tome of Courage: Protective Spirit: This trait now applies to the caster as well.
• Tome of Courage: Pacifism: Daze duration has been increased to the 3 seconds listed in the tooltip.

Honor

• Pure of Heart: This trait now heals for its base amount +25% benefit from healing power, up from 10%.

Radiance

• Blind Exposure: Vulnerability caused by this trait has been increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Radiant Fire: This trait now grants a 20% bonus to burning duration, in addition to reducing the torch skill recharge by 20%. Fixed the description text to indicate the accurate recharge reduction.

Valor

• Glacial Heart: This trait now applies 5 seconds of chill on a critical hit with a 100% activation rate (up from 4 seconds on a 50% rate). This effect’s recharge has been reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Mace of Justice: This trait now grants up to 250 healing power while wielding a mace.

Virtues

• Shielded Mind: Courage now breaks stun for up to five allies when activated, instead of just the guardian.

Zeal

• Wrathful Spirits: This trait now increases damage dealt by spirits by 50% (up from 10%).
• Scepter Power: This trait has been increased from 5% bonus damage to 10% bonus damage.
• Zealous Blade: This trait has been merged with Greatsword Power and is now labeled as a Tier 2 trait.
• New Tier 3 trait—Kindled Zeal: 10% of the player’s power is now converted into condition damage.

Undocumented

Valor

• Strength in numbers: Nearby allies gain up to 150 toughness based on your effective level. Increased from 70

Harbinger.8637:

Also Strength in Numbers is going to be 150 not 250.

250 would be great. I could fight naked!

I have to agree with Obtena to a certain extent – burning for a guardian is bonus damage to our melee attacks and when traited for is a flat 10% direct damage bonus thanks to Fiery Wrath ( which is considerable )

Strength in Numbers buff is nice, brings it more in-line with warrior banners

TBH not sure what to make of their preview – there is no mention of Torment at all for instance

Debonaire.5207:

So I’m taking that master of consecrations would be very useful and just swap out my last skill as needed and keep the shield ready thank you all very much for the input

Just in-case you don’t know, you can switch traits on-the-fly as long as you have the points invested in them (and you are out of combat). So I tend to alternate Master of Consecrations (vi) and Improved Spirit Weapon Duration (v) depending on the mobs.

If you are comfortable with this build, then there’s no reason why you can’t use it for fractals.

FoTM is mainly about choosing the right utilities between encounters ( and switching weapons and traits if necessary ) – the first 30 or so fractal levels you can be in a very glassy build.

You’ve got shouts with Pure of Voice, which is always useful. Also as you have points in Virtues you can hotswap spirit weapon and consecration duration traits as needed ( you’ll probably get a rude comment from pug members if you don’t use wall of reflection or shield of the avenger during some battles ).

People tend to go for AH because you can be quite lazy and stand there face-tanking a lot of the mobs, generating might for other melee classes in your group – but there’s no reason to go that route if you don’t like it.

If you find you’re having troubles, then switch some of your gear for a touch more dodge-roll and/or symbol healing, and experiment with a staff or mace.

I noticed the new Jade Dragon shield is one of the few that “works ok” with aegis

A bit off topic, but I just to add to all of Akamon’s handy tips:

Alot of guardians know about using Judges Intervention to insta-teleport a ring of warding around unsuspecting foes ( and/or hit them with some surprise burst damage ), but you can also use JI to extend the range of your other CC abilities.

Coupled with:

• Bane Signet active for a 2400 range knockdown
• Zealot’s Embrace for a 2400 AOE immobalize.
• Chains of Light for a 2100 target immobalize.
• Leap of Faith for an 1800 range leap+ AOE blind (and traited up to 15 stacks of AOE vulnerability).

Both Zealot’s Embrace and Ring of Warding coupled with JI are great tools for breaking the momentum of an oncoming enemy zerg ( giving your force a precious few seconds of advantage just as they engage )

Really you can play with combinations and stats until the cows come home.

One of my buildcraft builds has 17.3k effective power… does it work in practise? not really no.

On one hand it’s often a waste of effort to overc-omplicate things – if I’m switching to a particular play style I don’t want to spend 20 minutes loading in 3 different accessory types and 4 different armour types. I might also choose something less than optimal just so I have the flexibility to switch certain traits in and out without having to run back to a trait master.

Also if I want to explain a build to someone I’ll keep it simple to illustrate the principle and let them switch bits out to suit their ideals and play style. It really isn’t worth putting a great deal of energy into arguing over.

You take a good baseline build and you adapt it to the every-changing situation. WvW for instance varies considerably over the course of a day and depending on which map you are on and who the dominant opponents are. On my server, morning borderlands favour high dps builds but by lunch time you’ll want to start cranking up the tankiness or healing capabilities- by evening you’re in a full raid support build ( and in the upper tier EB you can rarely get away with something squishy ).

I think I have about 6 armour sets and 3 accessory sets and 3 of every weapon in my inventory by now, purely so I can adapt to the situation.

There are optimal builds and there are relevant builds – you just have to work out which is best for you ( and the best way to do that is to test them yourself )

The Thief’s Skale Venom trait is getting weakness switched to Torment – perhaps if they just re-enabled the consumable for WvW then all classes would have some kind of access to the new condition.

tbh I’m quite happy – if this list is verbatim then I was expecting lots of nerfs to our current viable builds.

Also if you look closely at other classes, not everything is good news for them.

akamon.2769:

AoE stun break on Shielded Mind seem kinda OP though XDD

Yes, but wasn’t it always meant to be AoE and was just bugged recently? It’s still not worth taking over Indomitable Courage and Absolute Resolution ( the former has nearly the same effect both pro-actively and retro-actively )

With scepter power and speed buff it’s going to be absolutely lethal – near 3k crits that have a fair chance of hitting?

This along with damage from chains of light and improved bane signet CD is a real bonus to my roaming builds.

Blind Exposure buff for sword and great sword users is huge ( unless they fixed the leap of faith bug )

Personally I think someone must be trolling us…

If vigorous precision and inspired virtue get moved up it will really change the dynamic of a lot of builds

“Empowering Might: Guardians will now get a toe nail ripped out for every stack of might they generate”

It’s a shame Permeating Wrath is so far into Virtues – it would make a nice addition to this build

Both Signet of Mercy and Merciful Intervention have been completely broken since day 0. I doubt we’ll see them fixed…ever…

Hallowed Ground is awesome. Great in tPVP (where it just fits perfectly inside a cap-point) and certain PVE encounters, pretty useless in WvW ( although good for might stacking ). Its main issue is that you lose a meditation or shout by slotting it ( unless you’re going all-out consecrations )

I love your Elementalist impression (9:34)

Well funnily enough I had a similar thought last week, so I tested it quite recently ;-)

Just for completeness:

(Blind/Invulnerability) > (Aegis/Block)

Items in brackets will trigger simultaneously on hit.

You can therefore waste renewed focus to protect your shield, which I guess might be ok if all your virtues are on CD.

Personally, if I’m counting on getting off the shield detonation mid fight, I’ll spam focus #4 and F1 to keep blind up as much as possible, and dodge if I can afford to (F1 is also handy if you want to proc fiery wrath before the burst occurs )

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Tarsius.3170:

Webba.3071:

I suspect, though I have no evidence for it, that the 20% less CD is by far most useful for the staff. I am not as familiar with the hammer as I should be, if you can get 100% prot uptime without the trait then its probably about the same as the gs.

The trait will give you the ability to proc retaliation off every single symbol of protection. You can using Mighty Blow after every auto attack chain, instead of every 2 chains, so it offers a shade more than the 20% dps increase the trait implies.

2HM actually has absolutely zero effect on hammer DPS. In the worst case, it’s actually negative. Interrupting your auto-attack chain to use Mighty Blow actually causes you to lose substantial amounts of DPS; you should only be using it after completing a full chain. As such, Mighty Blow’s effective cooldown is basically fixed at 7.5 seconds; you can only do it every two auto-attack chains, so it doesn’t matter whether it becomes available after four seconds or five.

Sorry I meant a “shade more dps” not a “a shade more than 20% dps” – I was mainly commenting on the fact the benefits for the hammer is probably better than it is for the GS. But hammer #1 chain takes 3.7 seconds, to complete – so with a 4 second CD you can add mighty blow in between each cycle – I think a 0.3 pause in #1 is worth the big AoE damage + blast finisher + gap closer that mighty blow provides

In PvP when you have to time your hammer swings based on the movement of the opponent, #2 will usually be available when you need it.

That being said, I don’t personally use it – I find other traits in Honor have much more tangible impact.

Webba.3071:

I suspect, though I have no evidence for it, that the 20% less CD is by far most useful for the staff. I am not as familiar with the hammer as I should be, if you can get 100% prot uptime without the trait then its probably about the same as the gs.

The trait will give you the ability to proc retaliation off every single symbol of protection. You can using Mighty Blow after every auto attack chain, instead of every 2 chains, so it offers a shade more than the 20% dps increase the trait implies.

If any allies receive the aegis/protection active effect then they should also get the stun break… it’s probably just bugged in tPvP ( or generally been broken recently, I’ve not tried it for a while )

Really the only time I might consider it, is when running a full consecration build, when you have no ready access to stun breaks ( unlike a shout or meditation build has )

I love to WvW roam with a similar build to this although sadly in the upper tier servers, the opportunities for duelling grow less and less.

Nevertheless, I tend to trait with 30,30,5,5 early in the morning when it can still be a lot of fun.

I probably wouldn’t use it for PVE firstly because I don’t do it much any more and I’ve forgotten most of the mob timings and secondly because I like to bring a bit more utility to the group, so I’d go with something similar to what akamon suggests, although I like to keep 10 in virtues just so I have the option for switching in consecration ground targeting or spirit weapon duration traits depending on the encounter.

Last time I used it was at Halloween in the Mad King event to cancel group fear on the ledges ( I was just playing around and testing it )

…as others have noted I’ve really not found utility for it that isn’t better served with having Absolute Resolution or Indomitable courage ( which has the same effect, but better ).

To be honest, I hope they merge it out in the upcoming trait patch and replace it with something more useful

The best one I ever heard was on my Asura. Something like:

“I know of only one person as intelligent as me, and I only ever see him when I look in the mirror”

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Tarsius.3170:

Dodge out of range, then immediately start whirling wrath – I would expect 1 or 2 of the bolts to hit at least!

You can hit WW, dodge, and then immediately hit WW again!? Wow, I never knew dodge reset WW cd!

O.o

no no dodge first then WW ( but only once you’re at 600 range at least darnit! )

Dodge out of range, then immediately start whirling wrath – I would expect 1 or 2 of the bolts to hit at least!

We also have some of the best minor traits in the game IMHO.

Perma Vigor, dodge healing, extra damage for stacking boons and conditions and blocking, extra boons/retal from virtues and the ability to blind and burn after every kill

Brutaly.6257:

Lets hope he isnt at a LAN-party so he pulls condition from 5 gamers around him.

breaks out the clearasil just incase

As far as I know, Professor Beard/TheGlueGuy has been very busy out of game recently ( travelling etc ) hence he wasn’t able to spend time on the last scheduled consecrated podcast.

He did promise the next will be on time though – if not I suggest we all switch servers and troll him in WvW until he does ;-)

June 28 patch notes:
– Switched Radiance, Valor, Honour and Virtues trait lines with the worst trait lines from the other professions to help with class balance. Guardians can now choose from exciting new traits in Zeal, Spite, Inventions….

I have a similar story to akamon, although recently I’ve been enjoying having the Bane Signet on my toolbar.

Although it’s hard to give up SYG, being able to hit a fleeing target for >3k + knockdown at 1200 range is really useful, and is often my finishing move. It’s not so handy for PvE though (unless you are planning to speed run content)

The nicest thing about guardian PvE is that your utility bar doesn’t need to be a static thing – I’m constantly switching traits and utilities depending on what I’m about to face.

I’m reminded of an old comment I made in the dungeon forums:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Peeps-arent-taking-enough-UTILITY-utilities/first#post1436000