Guild Wars 2

Ioci.3407:

stationary tank

Sorry Wrong game.

I’m pretty sure that we would respond by increasing the amount of protection/weakness/vigor/sigil of energy. We still have a lot of room for support that restraint our dps by a very small margin.

cletiscake.9173:

b) Not stacking in corners is simply not feasible.

I don’t know why anybody should listen to your opinion after that, since you don’t really know much about dungeon it seem.

Corner stacking is not only unnecessary, it’s only a bad strategy in 90% of the situation. True speed and records run corner in 4-5 situation for ALL dungeon path. You can add 2-3 other spot that records run skip entirely, but that most ppl kill because of the loot (aka Kholer).

Corner stack post Fiery GS nerf is a bad habit that pugs can’t seem to shake off. It’s also a easy but less efficient strategy for some fight for pugs.

Zoid.2568:

To do good combo fields and support a lot you will have to sacrifice dps and you can’t be a full zerker.

Ok and can you point me to a stats that you get from armor/weapons/trinkets that will improve you capacity to do good combo fields or support?? I’ll tell you, there is 3.

- Boons Duration from giver’ss armor and snowflake trinkets. They give so small amount of it, that it’s almost never worth it. If you really want boon duration, take food or runes but never replace you zerker gear for that reason
- Condition Duration from giver’s weapons. Condition duration mean more vulnerability and more condition that trigger damage multiplier. That’s pushing it, that’s not very efficient as a support stats and the only profession that use that for now is Engineer and like boon duration will do a far better job.
- Healing Power. I won’t go into lengthy explanation here. We all know that healing power isn’t worth it in PvE.

So again which gear should replace zerker to do better support or combo??

For me :

CS Thief are finishers. They are better roaming around the mid and finishing the enemies that try to run with low hp. They do wonder against squishy with their burst, but lack in constant dps for those longer fight.

PS Thief lack in burst, especially against those fleeing enemies, but make up with a more decent auto-attack, which make them better in longer fight. They also thrives in fight against Warrior. Steal + Whirling Axe + Improvisation is a powerful combination.

I usually use CS Thief against team with 2+ squishy (Ranger especially) and zero or 1 warrior.

I usually use PS Thief against team with 2+ warrior and low amount of squishy.

Anywhere in between is pretty much a guess and depend on what you prefer.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Virtue_Bunker

It’s not a new idea. Look up the ’’standard’’ build and see what differ from yours. But in the end of the day, bunker guardian (bunker anything) is not view a really good strategy anymore. The concept of bunker as in the first year and a half of the game was replace by brawler.

Versatility is more important in sPvP and bunker have none of that. They can keep a point longer, but they can’t do miracle and can only do that. Brawler on the other end can do the same job as a bunker (even if they do it as good), but have other cards in their sleeves when the team need it. Bunker can still do wonder in low level PvP, but as you get higher and are confronted with better players you start to see the problem with bunkers. But you can still have fun player a bunker, I had a blast playing my AH bunker guardian for a couple of hundred games before I switched.

You forget about condition damage build. Right now, condition damage is mostly not worth it (except WvW Roaming), especially in group content. With the test they did during the beta, we don’t know what will happen with it. I don’t really trust Anet about fixing condition for real, they probably just make some limited change. But we don’t know.

Elias.3204:

Miku.6297:

Actually reading the OPs full question again; I’d say necro as well. For open world pve play, and mostly solo, necros can be a blast

Could you please expand on why a necromancer would be a good fit? The profession is seriously a mystery to me. I didn’t understand it at all, but that sort of intrigues me. I seem to remember a while back a lot of people saying necros were very underwhelming – has that changed?

Necromancer is still underwhelming in dungeons, but since you only do dungeon on rare occasion, it’s not a big deal.

Necro are pretty good in solo situation. It have a highest amount of hp and with Deathshroud you kind of have 2 bar of HP, making it the easier caster profession to stay alive.

Caster profession + easy to survive without reflexes + mostly solo + not much dungeon = Necromancer would be a good choice for that.

Servers only matters for WvW. For everything else, we are all in the same megaservers. So if you don’t care about WvW then whatever server will do just fine.

If WvW count for you, then here the current ranking.
http://mos.millenium.org/na/matchups

I can’t help you if you are EU, but for NA

Tier 1 and Tier 2 are balanced by the players so you always have relatively fair fight (equal numbers). Tier 1 is the ’’fairest’’ since it’s full most of the time. But at the same time you usually always have to wait in queue before going in. Tier 2 is a bit less crowded. During peak hours you gonna have to wait in queue, but it’s not as bad as Tier 1.

Tier 3 and below are not balance by the players. You often have 1 good server and 2 server that get stomp, but it change a lot over time. You usually either dominate or be dominated as your server get up or go down in the ranking. But on the other side, you always have some place to play right always and it’s usually better for small scale fight.

alchemyst.2165:

I don’t understand why other classes can blast finish a smoke field for stealth and deal damage, and yet thieves can’t do it without being revealed. Please fix/change?

They can’t, other players are just better at blasting than you are. L2P

Engineer Turret is the Flavor of the month just like Power Ranger were before them. They are both not meta build, but very popular ones. Easy to relatively good with them, they can be frustrating to play against when you don’t know how to counter them.

This kind of build usually is one sided, but have obvious weakness because of their lack of versatility. Just like Power Ranger a couple months ago Engineer get a lot of hate right now because of the popularity of the build. As more and more ppl start to understand how easy they are to counter with the right build and as more ppl stop using those build the hate gonna drop down.

That only explain the hate, doesn’t excuse it. Raging over it because you don’t have the patience, observation skills or knowledge to understand how to fight those kind of build is one thing. But when you start insulting ppl using cheesy build, then you crossed a line.

FrenzyCat.9614:

I seldom ever run meta builds. What you see here is what I was able to come up with starting with a guide and then branching out and changing things as I saw fit.

Either you started with a terrible guide or you destroyed the hell out of it. As long as you stay out of Triple Trouble, Indigo Breach at SW, dungeon and fractal you should be fine.

Kodiak I get what you are trying to say, but you use wrong words.

First stop using the word bunker to describe a brawler cele Elementalist (D/D or Staff).

Two cele ele can’t sustain hits, they can sustain combat. They still have low hp and low armor, but they use active defense to sustain themselve throughout the fight. People that try to tank the damage and outheal it as a cele ele will die rather quickly. Yes they use protection to be able to sustain a bit more attack, yes they use heal to keep themselves alive, but that’s not enough. Shoutbow Warrior is way better at sustaining hits compare to a D/D elementalist.

Where cele Ele do better than a Shoutbow Warrior? It’s how he can avoid to be hit. Burning Speed will evade an attack, Updraft, Shocking Aura and Earthquake will interrupt an attack, the high amount of vigor will allow to dodge more often. A elementalist that will use those to his advantage will survive way more than one that try to take hits because elementalist isn’t great at taking hits.

S/D have a little more burst damage on his might rotation. It also easier and faster at pre might stacking. That’s why that’s a popular choice in some record run where the group stack might before the boss is ready.

S/F have more utilities and have a better might stacking rotation in fight. But the rotation have a daze which can screw up a Icebow burst if you do it wrong. It’s the most popular in most group since it’s more versatile.

Berserker would be the best choice. Since it’s the back item, it will do the job in all mode.

Unless you really want to go in high end fractal in the next couples of month then wait for the expansion.

Again Kodiak. You linked a brawler build, not a bunker. A bunker elementalist would use cleric, soldier or something like that, not celestial.

You can enter a group even if you level is lower, but you can’t post a LFG with a character that are under the minimum level requirement for that dungoen. So it can be frustrating when you have to change you LFG and you have a low level that joined, you can’t repost.

At this point I’m starting to think that Kodiak is just a troll.

Fade.1743:

While D/F itself is flexible in solo and pug situations, it’s not so much in organized groups.

All i’m saying is that on the list of things that you don’t want in your run, D/F is at the bottom of it. A lot of stuff need to be checked before the presence of D/F ele if you want to optimize your group.

And we are talking about pugs here don’t we? In that case, there is zero reason to ask someone to not use D/F Ele.

Kodiak.3281:

You can tell the OP that. Personally I play a hybrid and always have.

When you start the game and are learning how to play, that’s understandable.

If you are not new to the game, but play casually only and just want an easy game, that’s understandable.

If you just don’t give a kitten, you just like that way of play even if you know that’s not really good and just make sure to play with other ppl that think like you, that’s understandable.

If you are neither of those, still play hybrid and try to explain stuff to new player, then it’s just sad.

Kodiak.3281:

Are you really trying to say bunker Elementalists aren’t a thing in this game? I mean is that really the argument you are going with? I mean you can literally go watch any SPvP tournament video and see that bunker Elementalists is one of the most popular builds and it’s not because of their, _"ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack."

Repeat after me Brawler. B – R- A – W – L – E – R.

Brawler Elementalist with celestial amulet and defensive trait, that have a good amount of sustain healing, interrupt, vigor, condition removal, etc but can still keep a decend condition pressure and some good burst through rotation and might stacking. Those are popular build in PvP because you can keep a node, but also kill people.

Bunker Elementalist are all about defensive but hit like noodles. They will stay alive and are a viable tactic in low level pvp. But in high level of pvp, you’ll just get ignore while the enemy team will kill your team one by one until you end up 1vs3 at mid and get killed anyway. You don’t have the versatility to decap or kill an enemy in 1vs1, which mean that you often need help from an another of your teamates if you try to do something else than just bunking a point that you already have.

Mace main hand : It’s not the best option anywhere, it’s a niche weapon. I know that some pvp build use it, but…

Off hand mace : The vulnerability it give make it part of the meta in PvE.

Bacon.1835:

Firstly, tone down the rhetoric. Secondly, use some grammar.

Thanks I like rhetoric, i’ll put more of it next time

English is my third language if it offend you, internet isn’t the best place to go.

Bacon.1835:

a hybrid build focused on permanent burn uptime is having much more success in solo dungeon play than your average zerker builds.(this is also true for both warriors and engineers)

That’s your quote. There is a difference between :

1) Guardian Hybrid build are good in solo PvE situation

and

2) Guardian Hybrid build are superior to zerker build in solo PvE situation

I know that engineer and warrior condition build are powerful in PvE solo. I won’t comment on whether if condition build are better than zerker for those two since I never tried them personally. I just know they are some of the best profession for condition in PvE.

But I know that Guardian Hybrid is good in solo PvE, but it’s not ‘’having much more success’’ than zerker build. That’s the specific point I was arguing about.

The difference in dps isn’t that big. Glyph of storm is a bigger burst, but Signet of Fire will bring more overall damage (if you exclude the vulnerability). In a good group that focus on burst and skip, then yes Glyph of Storm will always be better. But when pugging, they are fairly equal, even in situation where glyph of storm is better the difference is small.

Personally, I only use signet of fire when I’m in relatively bad pugs. But leaving a pug because someone use signet of fire over the glyph, I found that a bit excessive and ridiculous.

If someone left the party because you use Signet of Fire, that’s a classic wannabe speed runner.

Signet of Fire vs Glyph of Storm? It depend on the situation. Overall Signet of Fire will be a better choice since most good team composition will be able to get 25 stack of vulnerability wihtout the Glyph.

But a team that want to burst down boss want 25 stack of vulnerability at the start of the fight, but after the Icebow burst is done. That’s the main strength of glyph of storm. But in a normal team, only 1 glyph is needed. Still there is some specific situation. For exemple, if your team have a ranger, then Glyph of Stom isn’t really needed since Ranger + Warrior will be able to get the boss to 25 vulnerability from the start. But if you get your might from a PS Warrior, then you want your warrior in GS at the start of the fight, not in Axe/Mace so then you want 1 glyph of storm (2 glyph of storm if you don’t have a ranger either).

It really depend on the team composition and what build everybody use. Neither Glyph nor Signet of fire will be the best choice in all situation and someone raging because you took one over the other definitively have some ego issue.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Thaddeus.4891:

Guardian have low hp making them vulnerable to condition. Most build if not all of them, bring a fair amount of condition removal.

Medi Guardian will bring Absolute Resolution, Smite Condition and Comtemplation of Purity.

While Bunker guardian will bring pure of voice with 2 or 3 shouts.

As for the signet of judgement, you only have 3 utilities so signet of judgement just seem like a waste of a good utilities. You want to take utilities that bring you something special that you can’t get from somewhere else. Less incoming damage can be achieve by numerous ways (amulet, runes, boons, active defence, etc).

That’s assuming everyone is using a meta build which was designed around a specific team comp.
There are actually decent alternatives to it with other strengths/weaknesses if your willing to experiment, that one just works best for the team comp the user had.

Don’t get me wrong VOR+ absolute resolution is nice for the group 3 condi clear but virtues is kinda meh as a trait line.

So if your group already has good condi clear there are other options

Please. I’m answering a specific question with specific build. You can give an answer that will cover all possible build ever use in the history of gw2.

Jayden Ennok.3687:

Staff ele can’t be glass dps? And how do you know the pugs are non-zerkers?

To me, it sounds like you are too salty about others wanting you to play something else then what you want.

You can either stay d/f and find a group that doesn’t care or switch to want they want. Contrary to want you are trying to imply here, it’s zerker groups that ask me to switch weps most often.

The problem with that is that D/F zerker ele is one of the most powerful build anyway. That make no sense to attack a D/F ele, since it does more damage than Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer and Necro (around the same damage as a Ranger). I can understand if there is already a Warrior PS, but otherwise.

Kodiak.3281:

Dying all the time and thus end up still killing slow sarcasms on sounds like so much fun sarcasms off

Can’t really help you with that. I learn how to play 2 years ago, don’t die much anymore on my zerker elementalist.

Saiyan.1704:

@Thaddeous
Exactly what bacon said. You don’t have to glue yourself to a target like Zerker builds. You are also less susceptible to getting kited, our biggest flaw. The only argument you have when it comes to Zerks vs Hybrid is that Zerkers typically do better in 3v3+ scenarios.

Even then, there’s certain scenarios where a Hybrid guard can out perform Zerks. It really depends on the player’s skill level.

I agree. In the end.

- Hybrid guardian are useless in Dungeon and other PvE group content.
- They can work in solo PvE situation, but they will be less efficient than power build.
- They won’t be good in WvW Zerg
- We know they are viable in small scale PvP fight, but the actual strength of these family of build are on an ongoing debate in the community. It work, but are they great or just good build? This discussion last for the last year and we won’t gonna end the conversation about this in the current post.

Saiyan.1704:

Thaddeus.4891:

Hybrid guardian are somehow viable in WvW roaming, but otherwise you will be terrible. Guardian are the worst profession to use condition of all 8.

Completely false.

What is completely false? When I say that Hybrid are somehow viable in WvW roaming? I’m not a fan, but I know that a lot of ppl like them. It’s been more than a year that people talk about those and still it didn’t replace medi guardian as top guardian roaming build. I know it’s a build that work, but sorry I don’t like it that much. When I say the worst profession to use condition i’m talking in PvE. Sorry I didn’t make that clear.

Bacon.1835:

The appeal of condi builds is that damage will always be rolling on a target even when you have to dodge or kite. Whereas your typical zerker build requires a constant skill rotation to pull the numbers on a spreadsheet.

If you stop attacking for a dodge you are losing dps, that you are a zerker or a condition build. It’s not because you last hit’s condition are still doing damage that you are not losing dps when you stop attacking. That argument is stupid. Condition don’t have an advantage over this. What you should have said instead is that condition hit as strong when you use a range weapon than a melee weapon. So you can kite mobs and continue to put condition on them without stopping, while on the other hand power build usually need to be in melee to do their max damage which then could lead to more dodge, which themselves will decrease the dmg. But in this particular situation, that doesn’t apply since the hybrid build he posted was melee.

People, can we get our head out of our kitten and talk about 1 game mode at the time?? When I post an argument about the situation of Hybrid in PvE, please don’t use it to talk about hybrid in PvP.

oxtred.7658:

Thaddeus.4891:

Kodiak.3281:

Personally I don’t get it. I’d rather kill slightly slower and have zero effort surviving but that’s just me.

Zero effort surviving + kill slower sarcasms on sound like so much fun sarcasms off

Didn’t you know? Berserker is about spamming 1 in a corner anyway. Nomad takes skill because you have to manage aggro.

Oh sorry you are right. I get confused when I see a post about how zerker make the game braindead by stacking + pressing 1 just next to a post about a PHIW guys that laugh at zerker as he pick them up from the ground.

Neko now you are stretching. You add classification and information on your own and pass them as widely used by the community. Just like Aggrostemma when he say that meta = most efficient tactic available. That’s the concept of meta, but that’s not where the word meta come from.

Nobody use tier in meta. Metabattle.com try to use Meta, Great, Good and it’s questionable at best. Meta is not that well organized, it’s messy and change a lot depending on who you are talking to. Some ppl consider that there is only one Meta, other consider that there is one meta per situation, other consider that there can be several meta for the same situation.

Kodiak.3281:

Personally I don’t get it. I’d rather kill slightly slower and have zero effort surviving but that’s just me.

Zero effort surviving + kill slower sarcasms on sound like so much fun sarcasms off

Sorry but I quit reading at your third paragraph.

Smite condition isn’t a condition clearer, it’s a burst damage skill. Most of the time I wait for a condition, any condition, to appear on my bar to use it for the damage burst it provide. That’s an intant 1.3 coefficient skill with a 360 radius. That’s right what you need to finish off a fleeing enemies or pile up burst damage with Mightblow + Smite or other burst, which is the speciality of a medi guardian.

Keep also in mind that if in theory VoR + Absolute Resolution + Renewed Focus can give you a decent amount of condition clear, in reality you use that only in desperate situation. I don’t know for you, but as a medi guardian, without the passive regen from VoR, I’m extremely vulnerable. So that leave you with Contemplation of purity as your only true on demand source of condition removal with smite condition in a more offensive role and VoR more as a panic button. Contemplation of purity also allow you to convert boons into condition. You won’t use it that way in a stressful combat situation, but when you have time to think you gonna want to convert the right condition into the right boons to improve you stats. Blind into fury and Vulnerability into protection will be your main priority in those situation.

Those 3 skills give me way more capability than a 10% reduced incoming damage. But whatever float your boat man.

Now I won’t go in depth for the comparison of HTL versus the signet because Bunker Guardian are no longer viable in higher end sPvP. But you seem to think that Weakness roughly equal to protection. Weakness is around 25% reduced incoming damage vs the 33% from protection. It’s also harder to remove Protection on a player than removing weakness from yourself. Protection is also more efficient as all enemies attacking you will have their damage reduce, not just those we were there when you use it (that include that Ranger 1500 range away). You also didn’t not consider the boon conversion capability with Pure of Voice. It doesn’t just remove the condition, it give you a boon. A aspect that good players use at their advantage.

Weyrd.2794:

I believe he is looking for advice on how to negate condition damage against himself, not make a guardian build that focuses on condition damage. This is based on this from his OP:
“Lately i’m having trouble with conditions, they burn my life out so fast..
Any advises? "

He also posted a build that use carrion gear.

Oofta.8036:

I apologize. I didn’t really want to derail this thread. I guess what I am asking, for those of us who normally lurk these forums, is how do people get better at this. Is it all just trial and error and screams of rage from others? Is it the videos that are out there, if you can find one that teaches and is not just a glory film?

I have lurked the forums and there is a lot of conflict on what is best but not so much on what is bad. It seems to be common ground. There has to be a way for good to help teach the bad. There has to be give and take on both sides of that though. The “goods” need to explain and not belittle and the “bads” need to pay attention and not be stubborn.

Again, I apologize for the potential derail. (thanks for responding to my earlier post)

Take a look at meta battle and try to figure why the build work that way, why these choice make it better. If you can’t figure out something, then ask for it. There a reason and a logic behind all of the choice that were made behind those build. Keep in mind that for some build, some variation were left out of meta battle.

Then you can try to figure out why some stuff were left unused in those build. You can ask why the community view them as ’’bad’’ or not the best choice.

Specific question will get specific answer. Broad question will get broad answer.

Of course if you can find someone in game (usually in a guild) to mentor you and teach you in-game and over a voice chat program, that’s even better.

Warrior have the highest armor and highest base hp of the game, that’s why he doesn’t have access to as much healing capabilities as other. But you can still gain access to some additional healing skill like healing shouts.

But in PvE you want as little as possible defensive capability as a warrior (well like all profession). Your high amount of armor and hp combine with your dodge is enough for high end content if you skilled enough. Even ppl that solo Arah (the ’’hardest’’ dungeon) will do it with zero additional defensive ability from their build. They use dodge, GS #3 and for some of the hardest fight they only use a sigil of energy.

Of course, from that point, take the amount of defensive capability you need to stay alive as you learn to fight.

Oofta.8036:

So is there any hope for those who actually play these types of characters and builds? I found myself on a couple of these lists with my toons.

I have a GS/LB Ranger and one of my pets is a bear and the other a cat.
I have a Guardian who likes to go Mace to Face with boss mobs and also has a staff or GS depending on the fight or role.
I have a P\P Thief but he doesn’t go into dungeons but is a lot of fun to play.
I have a Scepter Elly that really likes Fire.

I have others as well. Is there a class one can take to learn how conform? Or is it best that we never ever pug and only play with those like themselves in their own guilds?

This thread was a very disappointing read. To find out that all the fun I had since the game began has been a lie and I have been playing the game wrong all this time.

It’s not black and white. The list from J envy is strict and partially wrong. Something can be not optimal, but still good. And there is so many factor, that you can take something just for you that isn’t really that good and still do decently if the rest of your build is good. Here some exemple :

- Ranger Sword can be difficult to play. GS/LB is a relatively good substitute. It won’t be as good as Sword, but it will do the job. If by cat you mean Jungle Stalker then is all good and bear can be good in some situation when you need to tank a boss (like the final boss of HotW path 1). So if GS over sword isn’t a big deal, but if you are using defensive gear or defensive trait while keeping bear out most of the time, then it’s not the same thing.

- Mace is actually a really good replacement for Sword. It only like 1-2% less dps and it’s actually the best choice in some specific fight of if you play a hammer build. But camping it is as bad as camping sword, while Staff would be only acceptable if you use a Hammer build (and you use staff only at the start of a fight) or if you are in TA.

- P/P thief is terrible in dungeon, but who care about in open world. Have fun with it.

- Sceptre Ele that like fire. Now you are on the edge of terrible. If you ain’t using Lightning Hammer with it then I hope you don’t join my dungeon group. Sorry

Fade.1743:

While I won’t go into detail on dungeons, I will advise that you also keep at least a set of PVT armor on you if you want to do world bosses. You can’t do critical strikes against most of them and the extra defense helps out. Those fights are more about surviving and doing non-crit damage so…this helps. (I’ve yet to do the worm in Bloodtide though)

PVT armor for world boss are good, but for Triple Trouble wurm in bloodtide, it’s a bad idea. It’s ok for the first phase, but if too many ppl don’t have zerker in the second phase, it’s gonna fail. You can crit on the heads at 2nd phase and it’s a dps race before the time expire.

Take the trait 2 in arcana. It give you perma vigor, which will help. But whatever you do elementalist zerker are the hardest profession when it come to survivability. We all had to go throught that. The feeling that you are useless and that people are judging you because you go down so much. Don’t worry it will take time, but you will stop dying so much as you get better. Elementalist zerker is all about position.

There is also some change that you can do if you really have a problem.
1) You can use some piece of more defensive gear as training wheels. As you get better you get back to zerker gear.
2) You can take a look at D/F Elementalist. A bit less dps, but more survivable and more versatile. It’s also a really fun build to play. It’s a popular build in high level fractal where staying alive can be harder.

In PvE no pls don’t care to ask.

In PvP celestial is probably the most healing you want to go int

In WvW zerg, it’s different. If you are in an organized group then no way, but if you are in a pug zerg healing guardian or elementalist can be fun and useful.

Meta is a weird thing. In theory it’s simple with the definition that Zelyhn gave you. But in reality, what is meta depend on what content you are doing, what is your team composition and for PvP, what is the opposite team.

In PvP you have so many variable that meta really only mean which build are more popular right now and work well within the conquest mode. Add to that pvp is so skill based that people will be better with the build they like the most. For exemple, my friend know that D/D Ele is in theory better than staff Ele, but she can’t really play D/D and like Staff so the best for her is to keep playing Staff.

For PvE, it’s a bit easier. You know what will be in front of you, what will be your enemies and what you will need to go through it. So meta there are much more developed and optimized. Some profession have a strict meta that is view as the most optimal way for a long time with limited change to it, very few variation are seem as worth it. Warrior is the best exemple. You can vary your build, but you know that you sacrifice efficiency for a build that you prefer to run yourself. But other profession have a lot of variety in their meta. Elementalist for exemple will have Staff build for most dps and S/X for might stacking. But even those build can vary greatly depending if your party need more burst, more vulnerability, more might, etc.

Bacon.1835:

With the introduction of sinister gear, a hybrid build focused on permanent burn uptime is having much more success in solo dungeon play than your average zerker builds (this is also true for both warriors and engineers).

If you can land all hit of smite and switch between Sw/T and Sc/F during the fight you will be able to do 2640 of direct damage dps with the build you posted.

You have perma burning so that’s 0.25 * 1792 + 328 =776 dps
Add AW and Sigil to reach 776 *1.33 * 1.06 =1 094 dps of burning.

For bleeding lets say you put bleed each 2 seconds, that mean that you can keep 2,5 stack for 466 dps.

Total dps = 4 200 dps. And that’s a really not reliable dps number for most fight since rare are the mobs that will take all the hits from smite. It would be a correct dps expectation for Lupi and other slow/large bosses, but that’s it.

In the same situation. A zerker Sceptre build (6/6/2/0/0) would make around 6 100 dps. While in normal fight a zerker GS + Sw/F (6/6/2/0/0) would make around 5 200 dps.

So yes, hybrid guardian are viable in solo situation, yes maybe you prefer using it which is fine. But in no way it’s more efficient than a zerker. The problem here is mostly because condition are not affect by damage multiplier like direct damage is. If they could, then yes hybrid guardian could be a rival to zerker build in solo. That said, condition build can be easier to use in a solo situation.

Khasandara.4196:

Jerus.4350:

Ohh I read that, but also

A) Those who believe this and makes the game not fun but just a dps-stacking race and sometimes a burst of rage if any of this list is not followed by the book

As if playing efficiently is somehow objectively unfun.

Personally most dungeons to me are only fun if I’m teaching someone, or if we’re pushing to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible, otherwise it’s just another run at the same thing doing the same stuff.

I “think” (Not sacarms) that I understand your point, still, I think that you didnt catch the part of the “and sometimes a burst of rage if any of this list is not followed by the book”.

I can understand that you want to run any dungeon in the most effcient way possible,
but I still feel that its totally unnecessary the Burst of rage for not following things by the book.

At the moment that anyone (You, me, or any other player) falls into rage bursts, they totally forgot about how to have fun.

So either ppl burst into rage or they accept whatever you bring to the table? I’m sorry but that’s now how it work in life. There is stuff I won’t accept in my run, but I won’t burst into rage. I’m here with my friends to have fun. We may keep the bad pug, take screenshot and laught in our TS. We may kick him right up. We may ask him to change some stuff. But I don’t really rage and If I do it, I rage over TS with my friends not on a party chat.

The point Khasandara is that your two category of ppl is really bias. It’s those that think like you and the others that don’t think like you that are toxic and don’t like fun.

I’m in either of those category for exemple. I believe in most of the stuff in that list (with some nuances). I can still complete stuff with most composition, but that doesn’t mean that I will like it. I’m not a kitten about it, but if you push my buttons too much with horrible build and bad skill, I will kick you.

For me it’s a question of respect. I’m making effort to make sure the run go smoothly, I’m asking the same in return.

Hybrid guardian are somehow viable in WvW roaming, but otherwise you will be terrible. Guardian are the worst profession to use condition of all 8.

Here two builds for WvW roaming and PvE that are pretty similar in gear. If you use flame legion rune, and keep your PvP sigils you will have almost zero gear switching to do and you will have two good build rather than 1 bad one.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_GS_Sword/Focus/Torch

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Meditation_Roamer

For sPvP your gear doesn’t affect your stats so it doesn’t matter one bit.

Guardian have low hp making them vulnerable to condition. Most build if not all of them, bring a fair amount of condition removal.

Medi Guardian will bring Absolute Resolution, Smite Condition and Comtemplation of Purity.

While Bunker guardian will bring pure of voice with 2 or 3 shouts.

As for the signet of judgement, you only have 3 utilities so signet of judgement just seem like a waste of a good utilities. You want to take utilities that bring you something special that you can’t get from somewhere else. Less incoming damage can be achieve by numerous ways (amulet, runes, boons, active defence, etc).

For PvE

- The optimal choice would be berserker. But it can be harder when you begin. Either you stick with berserker and learn fast, but die a lot at the beginning. Or you take some more defensive pieces and switch to berserker over time as you get more comfortable with your build.
- The optimal choice would be Scholar, but it have a higher price and the 6th bonus can be hard to maintain when you start. Flame Legion rune is a cheaper, but still good option for guardian.
- Amulet? That’s a question for sPvP probably. If you ask for the pve amulet it’s a weird question, but it’s berserker like the rest of your gear.
- GS and Sw/Focus go together. GS have a high burst skill (2 to 5), but a terrible auto-attack, while Sw have no burst, but a good auto-attack. They complete each other. You do a rotation where you do skill 2 to 5 with your gs, then switch to sword to auto-attack while waiting for your GS cooldown to finish.
- There is other option for weapons. You can replace Sword with mace or replace focus for torch. You can use Hammer + anything because you can use hammer only and still achieve a decent dps. Sceptre/Focus is also a really good option in some situation. It’s the highest dps of the guardian but only against slow/large enemies. GS + Sw/Focus is the most popular setup, but you can explore other options each with their pros and cons.

sPvP

If you want a high dps build for guardian in sPvP, then medi guardian is your option. You have different option of weapons for that. Hammer + Sc/Focus following by GS + Sc/Focus are the most popular in the moment.

Silverwaste is where you get the most stuff per hour. You gonna get your 500 ectos and more. With the remaining ectos you can salvage them for crystalline dust. You also get a good amount of tier 6 and tier 5 that you can put in the mystic forge to get more tier 6. You also gonna get enough obsidian shard.

For your charged lodestone. Do All CoE path everyday you can to accumulate lodestone and core that you can transform into lodestone.

Once everything else is done, you only gonna have your precursor left. At that time you have a choice. Either you play the mystic forge to get it (It’s a gamble for someone who only want 1 specific precursor), you can accumulate gold to buy it on the TP, or wait for the expansion for the legendary collection to appear.

Capitol City.4856:

Well as I said, other MMO’s have build variety. This is specific to Guild Wars 2, otherwise it never would have become a complaint in the first place. I’m asking if there’s a way to have build variety without roles, which is what Anet tried and failed to do.

That’s just an illusion. In all MMO there is always 1 optimal build for each situation.

In SWOTOR for exemple you have the optimal Mercenary healer build. You can do different things with your mercenary. You can do a dps build with it, but that’s not the strength of the build and you ain’t gonna be the best dps out there. Even if you are healer. You can have different build, but there will be a most optimal build. Same with Juggernaut. My friend use to play a dps Juggernaut. It worked, but it always bugged me because it wasn’t a great dps.

There is as much build diversity in other game as GW2, it’s disguise. Again for SWOTOR. You had 4 different stats for damage. Aim, Cunning, Willpower and Strenght. But each of the 4 profession concentrate on only 1 of those. All Bounty Hunter take Aim, all Imperial Agent want cunning, etc, etc. How is that more diversity.

Could GW2 have more build diversity? Yes of course and it should.
- Make condition in PvE competitive over power build.
- Make more difficult content to push our build more into support. Content that make us need more Vigor, more Protection, more reflect, more weakness, etc
- Make more unique trait like Phalanx, Fresh Air, Persisting Flames or Writ of Persistence. Trait that we can create build around.

Capitol City.4856:

It just makes builds kind of stale, it’s been a very very long time since I’ve seen a new PVE build that was better than the ones made a year ago.

Gear =/= Build. Each time they did good change to trait and skill they can create new build. Phalanx is a great example of that.

Capitol City.4856:

. It would be cool if healing, toughness, and condition damage meant something in dungeons, but for now they just don’t.

Condition Damage definitively. Toughness no way. Healing maybe, but not really.

Capitol City.4856:

And not being able to switch up your build is just not fun.

That’s on you. I use a lot of different optimal build for each situation like all the record and speed run community.