Confirm that they don’t stack for the sigils with fixed value (5% damage, 10% burning, etc…) and on-kills (get 10 power on kills, etc..). You can only have one on-kill sigil effect up at a time (you cannot have both 250 power and 250 precision for example). For a proc sigil, due to internal cool down, it’s not worth to stack two sigils of a same type.
Full berserkers. Full glass cannon. Relying solely on meditations and guardian’s decent armor to stay alive. I am there to do damage. As long as I survive, I have no need for the extra hp/armor.
Hammer is probably my main weapon of choice for dungeon. I however use a different build but same concept on high crit rate with decent survivability (I use meditations).
A quick question on two-handed mastery, since most of the hammer damage comes from the chain attack, is there any noticeable increase in damage when reduces hammer cool downs (its only other damage attack is MB, which will only reduces by 1 sec)? Also, I generally run with a fire elementalist so I usually delay my MB for a blast finisher.
10/30/30/0/0 is one-handed oriented so you probably have to give up using the GS. Going scepter/shield is my usual choice since having range, an interrupt, and projectile absorb is really good. The knockback can also be used to increase the gap for kiting. Or you can just use sword/torch for straight up damage and scepter/focus for defense/kiting.
I personally use 10/25/30/0/5 for more versatility so I am able to use any weapon. On single target, a 10/30/30/0/0 will probably beat my build out on damage with sword/torch.
Whatever your build it’s almost a requirement to have 10 points in Honor. Simply put “Wrathful Spirit” is simply too good not to take. Once your aegis goes down you gain 25 secs of retaliation (not sure if this has been nerfed, but it used to be 40 secs, which mean you had perma-retaliation)
Even so I want to say it’s 25 secs, and with 10 more points in Virtues you can get the 25% longer retaliation times to make it extremely mean.
Retaliation is power-based so with no power amulets you’ll hit for around 266, with 3k+ power you’ll be hitting for close to 400 dmg every time you are hit, it is simply too much damage to ignore at this point.
It’s 13.5 seconds with the 25% retaliation from Virtues. It’s quite useless for an offensive meditation build due to the fact that you cannot afford to draw out the fight. Those 10 points can be spent to get 20% crit and 10% damage from Radiance (Radiance Power and Right-Handed Strength plus the passive) or into Zeal for 10% damage (Fiery Wrath) and 100 power. Monk’s Focus is the staple of the build so cannot be taken away. That only leave us to take points away from Zeal and Radiance but both seems to be superior than Wrathful Spirit.
Edit: Wrathful Spirit effect seems to be either 10 or 20 seconds when activate. This may could have been a bug.
Not really anything new, been farming this guy when I was fresh 80. It’s not really particularly for guardian too. The zerg always break the ice wall way too fast in my server. Kinda disrupt my farming so I’m now rarely there anymore.
Also, you will lose about 20% crit (5% from Radiance passive, 15% from Right-Handed Strength) which is equal to about 10.6% damage assuming that you’re using Runes of Divinity and Knight’s Amulet with Berserker jewel. On top of that, you also lose 10% damage from Radiance Power (25 Radiance minor trait). With 20/20/30/0/0, you gain 100 power, Symbolic Exposure (which is useless if you’re running sword with scepter on switch), and Eternal Spirit. I hope that losing 20.6% AND a utility slot for spirit weapon is worth it for the “extra” damage.
For spike damage, you won’t beat out 10/30/30/0/0. You could probably be a semi spirit weapon build, but you will not have the same spike. Your damage will also be inconsistent between spirit weapons cool down. Unlike a specialized spirit weapon build, you probably will only have one spirit weapon up (since you’re still a meditation focus build). You will get more control out of the spirit hammer though, but your damage increase is only minimal. I prefer to keep SYG to stomp those pests on the ground.
Well, I thought he is 40 (or about to hit 40). If anything below 40, it’s just picking up 5 in Virtues and filling stuffs out til 40. 20% off in shout may be good during this time as well as 10% more damage against burn targets.
10/15/0/0/5 + Greatsword = plowing through stuffs in solo PvE. A good offense is the best defense, ie: kill it so fast that they can barely land any hit on you.
That’s only 100 power and 150 precision, not a whole lot by that level. Plus, sub-40, you can’t put 15 points in anything, it’s capped at 10. That ten points in Vitality would give you 1000 HP, and you could take some toughness to boot and improve your survivability by a long stride. I’m pretty sure that at below level 40, 100 power will probably be around 10-15% of your attack power, but 1000 HP is probably a 20% or more boost to your health pool.
I agree with you on 5 in virtues though, that’s a must for just about any build. Even the 10 in power for the burning aegis is good, I just don’t agree on the points in precision.
It’s not the stats. It’s the synergy. Renewed Justice will allows you to refresh VoJ every kills thus stacking Might with Inspired Virtues and Justice is Blind’s AoE blind(and also Vulnerability if you have Blind Exposure). Also, since VoJ will almost always be up (unless you fight only one mob for a long time, ie. dungeon bosses with no adds), that will guarantee you to have burn up for Fiery Wrath.
10/15/0/0/5 + Greatsword = plowing through stuffs in solo PvE. A good offense is the best defense, ie: kill it so fast that they can barely land any hit on you.
wtf
i got one guy saying guardian main dmg is from condition and suggested 25 radiance and 10 zeal
now i read this topic and another guy says condition dmg is trash
wtf??
If you’re talking about me, then you’re mistaken. My build is strictly “spike” damage with crit + c.dmg. I’ve never really taken a liking to burning (or condition in general). As Gabo pointed it out, you need to have high enough condition damage for it to be worth anything. Even if you have all your gears build for condition, there’s no guarantee because of sigil of corruption. The other guy could have a higher stack than you or you could be downed and lose all your stacks when you have 25.
I use two characters, an average size female human and a max size norn male.
I did the tests on two golems, heavy and light (due to their size differences).
After 50 tries on each golem per character, my data shows that there’s no differences between the two races. Both of them got the maximum14 hits from Whirling Wrath out of all the attempts ( a total of 200 attempts, all 14 hits).
Note that I positioned both of my characters right on top of the golems, as precise as possible.
I need to do more tests on a different target since the two golems could possibly have the same hit box. Now, off to find an asura to let me beat on.
I just tested this on a Norn Guardian and a Human Guardian. There is absolutely no difference in damage using a steady greatsword on a heavy golem.
Starting armor, steady greatsword, traits reset both races do exactly nine attacks for 17 damage, barring crits or glancing blows.
How many times have you tested on both? Were you standing directly inside the golem? Even though the description only state 9x attack, you can hit up to 14 hits from whirling wrath (swings + projectiles). I just did some small tests on the heavy golem with my average size human female. If you stand directly on top of the golem, it’s a 14 hits with no misdirection projectiles.
2h has about 150 more attacks than 1h+oh but one less sigil slot. Hammer has probably the highest sustained damage thanks to Symbol of Protection from the 3rd hit of its chain attacks.
If we calculate only the stats, 1h+oh will probably trump 2h because of the extra sigil. 5% damage (or 5% crit if your c.damage is high enough) is better than 150 attacks.
ok i think im doing your build
so for my EQ i should focus on power/precision right?
also i noticed ur underwater utilities r diff
on purpose or forgot to change?
My last utility is my “situational” slot. I switch around accordingly such as Retreat during farming or leveling, Wall of Reflect in dungeons, Signetof Wrath for kiting, etc…I leave Save Yourselves as my underwater because of it can be used in any situation (damage, survivability, and mobility all in one). The link is my old set up so my underwater is not updated.
For stats, just get whatever best you can get at your level. Usually my stats preference is precision > crit damage > or = power > toughness = vitality > condition damage > heal.
This build has versatility in that you can use ANY weapon. All the traits work with any kind of weapons. So have all the weapons in your bag for the situation that requires it (exp: scepter/focus for kiting, staff for mobility/support or mob tag during big events, hammer for dungeons b/c of its low cd blast finisher, etc..)
Every build is good for dungeons. The shout build is more supportive than my build due to the nature of shouts. I quoted shout just to make fun of it that you can just call it a shout build by just getting 20% shout cd trait and go all shout utilities.
…and ur build i have some Q
Zeal -why do you have zeal so low? wouldnt that mena low dmg?
Radiance – why do you pick signet CD when you only have 1 signet?
also no honr??
i meant no offense to ur build i just dont know anything bout guardian..
Due to the amount of crit chance that I have (56%), going Valor for the crit damage is better. Here’s my other post:
Crit damage goes hand in hand with crit chance.
Valor vs Zeal (30% crit damage vs 300 power):
In my current exotic berserker gears with only 25 points in Radiance (0/25/0/0/0), I have 3136 attacks and 53% crit chance. So if I go in Zeal for the 300 power, it would be an increase of 9.6% (from 3136 to 3436). On the other hand, if I go 30% crit damage, I would gain around 15.9% overall damage.
So let’s say I don’t spec in Radiance anymore (41% crit chance). That would be 12.3% damage gain with 30% crit damage from Valor.
Now with no precision gears and 25 points in Radiance (16% crit chance), I get around 4.8% damage off 30% crit damage.
This is not counting in Retributive Armor from Valor (0.9% damage for 3% crit in gears with no toughness).
This is still a theory and assuming that attack scaling is linear.
About the Signet, it’s 8 seconds off on my heal making it more in line with others (usually 30 secs cd). Also, if your signet cool down faster, you’ll get back your passive effect faster.
Well, for your 2nd build, you can just switch out Eternal Spirit for the 5% GS damage in Zeal. Grab 2-handed Mastery in Honor for your major tier 2 and Signet Mastery in Radiance major tier 1 (assuming you’re gonna use Signet of Resolve for the heal). For utilities, equip Hold The Line, Save Yourselves, and Retreat. Now you have yourself a “shout” build for solo leveling.
Your second build is…awkward. You got Eternal Spirit trait but no spirit weapons in your utilities. Going 20 into Honor without picking up either Empowering Might, 2-handed Mastery, or Writ of Persistence.
Sear a mystic symbol in the target area that damages and burns foes (like literally burn them, not like Symbol of Wrath) and granting Fury to allies.
Details:
Deal small to medium amount of damage to target inside symbol.
Burn the target for 1 sec every second it stays inside the symbol.
Grant fury to allies for 1 sec every second they stay inside the symbol.
Combo field: Fire (since we have so much light fields).
Rune of Strength will give you more bang then. It’s a flat 5% damage increase with might. Also, since you have the valkyrie, what’s your crit damage at?
The symbol of stability is way too much for PvP. With Writ of Persistence (assuming wiki is correct), the symbol will last around 4.5 seconds and giving out stability every second (also last only a second). That’s 4 seconds of stability (since the last 0.5 won’t be able to refresh stability) on a cool down of 8 secs (50% up time). Also, since it reapplies every second, it makes the boon removal useless against it unlike SYG. It’s a mini Hallowed Ground.
Damage: Superior Rune of Strength or Ruby Orb x6 if you have high crit chance (42% crit chance or more for the overall damage gained from the 12% crit damage to be better than the flat 5% damage from rune of strength).
Also, depend on your crit damage that precision may be the best stat to stack. At 153% crit damage (including the base), each % of crit chance equals to 1.53% damage overall for me.
10/15/0/0/5 if you do a lot of solo leveling. After that, your build can evolve into whatever you want til 80 (such as dropping 30 points into Valor for meditations, Zeal for spirit weapons, etc…).
I play spike damage offensive meditation (10/25/30/0/5) at 80. It relies on “active” defense (meditations to keep yourself up) so you have to be on your toes with cool downs, stun breaker, and dodging. However, if you play well enough, your survivability is pretty up there for a full on damage build. So, if you like to see big numbers, I’d recommend it:
Quick trick on the scepter for keep defense (or general WvW’ing), sneak up on the target and spam Orbs of Wrath. As the projectiles are about to hit the target, use Chain of Light to make sure they’re immobilized for the consecutive Orb of Wrath hits. Use Smite right after Chain of Light. My orbs crit for around 2-3k on lowbies. So if 3-4 hit the target, it’s enough to kill it.
I’ll take Signet Mastery over Healer’s Retribution to reduce both Resolve and Signet of Judgment (16 secs cd on Judgement with Retaliation last about 8 seconds, ~50% up time).
If scepter has a chain attack, I prefer the 3rd hit to be the guided missile balls that the inquest mob has in CoE story. Would be so fun to have it chasing someone around.
Of course, it’s probably the only choice you have when you get Moa’ed. I’m still trying to find out if I can block Moa/Daze with Shield of Avenger. If it does, I can pop it and use Tome of Courage and bait his Moa.
@Trungalung – I think you missed the point. If they wait until you’re out of endurance, then just run away. If they don’t anticipate that, then dodge AND run away. This has nothing to do with underestimating your opponent. Just that 9 out of 10 Mesmers are not going to wait for the precise moment that you’ve run out of endurance to Moa you.
They don’t really need to wait til a full two dodge to even use moa. They can just wait til your heal spell to come back up, then Moa you while you try to heal. You will generally have only enough endurance for one dodge when you’re in Moa form (you were fighting, so I don’t expect you to have full endurance). Well, the only choice is to LoS or run away. The mesmer should have been expecting that you will start running away when you get Moa’ed so he should be in melee already to minimize the chasing distance (this is even easier against guardian because most of our builds are melee base). When you get out of Moa and try to heal, you’ll get clone daze and pistol stun.
Not that I’ve ever lost to a mesmer. My meditation build gives me the needed survivability to overcome Moa + interrupts.
Here’s what I feel on the whole “tanking” in general:
There’s no efficient way to keep the monster from attacking others. The only way is to bring 4 ranges and have the “tank” in melee since it seems that most monsters’ aggro is proximity base.
If tanking does work to a certain a degree as you said, how did you keep threat on the monster within those runs? Did you just whack it and hopefully it turns on you instead of your teammates? Assuming that threat is proximity of that particular boss, If I throw in another melee in there, would the chance of you getting aggro halves? Now if I throw you with 4 other melees, how do you keep the boss attack you 9/10 since there’s no taunt or threat increased ability?
most of my runs have been with just about no close range people at all, so it may very well just be proximity based, but how does that explain why suddenly the boss goes for one of the casters at the far back? right now im just attacking the boss and hes on me for most of the time.
Each monster/boss has a different “preferred” victim. Example would be the mini spider boss in AC ex. The spider will generally prefer to attack range targets with its poison spit.
If a smart mesmer is ready to Moa, he’s going for the kill. How do you know he’s smart? He moa’ed when the opponent just dodged twice while at half hp.
Truth…but you’re giving most players WAY too much credit. Besides…you can still run away while in Moa. It’s what I do, and it works. Run away and break LoS as much as possible while doing it.
It’s true that I give players too much credit. I have to. When I fight, I expect the other player to give 100%. If I don’t, I’ll start to get careless. So when I eventually run into the player that gives 100%, I’ll make more mistakes against him.
If a smart mesmer is ready to Moa, he’s going for the kill. How do you know he’s smart? He moa’ed when the opponent just dodged twice while at half hp.
Here’s what I feel on the whole “tanking” in general:
There’s no efficient way to keep the monster from attacking others. The only way is to bring 4 ranges and have the “tank” in melee since it seems that most monsters’ aggro is proximity base.
If tanking does work to a certain a degree as you said, how did you keep threat on the monster within those runs? Did you just whack it and hopefully it turns on you instead of your teammates? Assuming that threat is proximity of that particular boss, If I throw in another melee in there, would the chance of you getting aggro halves? Now if I throw you with 4 other melees, how do you keep the boss attack you 9/10 since there’s no taunt or threat increased ability?
How can you tank with HALF their hp and way less armor?
The only thing you have is aegis and protection, but that’s an aoe buff. Give them to a necro, that has TWICE your hp (4 times with lich form, I repeat: FOUR times your hp, also with more toughness), more healing, minions, hp leech, DEATH SHROUD, 3 ranged options.
At least use the focus as off-hand, so you can get shield of wrath for 3 more aegis only on yourself, but that’s not so influent compared to how often a necro can use death shroud, or can range kite with his/her minions attacking the enemy.
How in the world that the Necro has more armor than a Guardian while he’s wearing light armor? Given that they both stack toughness gears and get extra 300 toughness from trait.
30% crit damage doesn’t mean your crits deal 130% damage. It means they deal 180% damage (Base 150% + a flat 30%).
100% crit chance at 50% crit damage is a damage increase of 100%
50% crit chance at 50% crit damage is a damage increase of 50%
53% crit chance at 30% crit damage is a damage increase of 42.4%
I was calculating the benefit of getting 30% crit damage over 300 power so I’m excluding all other crit damage including base and from gears. Have to remember that the guy with 300 more attack power is also critting for 150%.
So, 180% (30% crit extra) vs 150% base at 53% crit chance:
53% crit chance at 0% extra crit damage (150%): 26.5%
42.4% – 26.5% = 15.9%
You gain an overall damage of 15.9% by increasing your crit damage by 30% (180%) from base (150%).
Now, I’m more interested in Power vs Crit Damage in down scaling. This is all assuming attack scales in linear (for easier calculation for now). I’m half expecting that there will be different attack coefficient just like for healing (I’m totally not sure on the healing since I remember reading the wiki, and spells have different formula).
Could you please explain how u get your numbers for 15.9% overall dmg?!
Assuming you crit 100% of the time, 30% crit damage will yield 30% extra damage. So with 53% crit chance, 53*30/100 = 15.9%
Also by your formula, 1% crit damage = 20 power. However, with a naked character, you only have 4% chance to crit. So overall, your power gained from 1% crit damage is a mere 0.8 power.
In my current exotic berserker gears with only 25 points in Radiance (0/25/0/0/0), I have 3136 attacks and 53% crit chance. So if I go in Zeal for the 300 power, it would be an increase of 9.6% (from 3136 to 3436). On the other hand, if I go 30% crit damage, I would gain around 15.9% overall damage.
So let’s say I don’t spec in Radiance anymore (41% crit chance). That would be 12.3% damage gain with 30% crit damage from Valor.
Now with no precision gears and 25 points in Radiance (16% crit chance), I get around 4.8% damage off 30% crit damage.
This is not counting in Retributive Armor from Valor (0.9% damage for 3% crit in gears with no toughness).
Here’s a pic of Whirling Wrath burst crit (10k something if you combine all the numbers. It’s on a boss in Arah ex). This is before I became full exotics so I hit harder now:
Judgement’s Intervention is already instant without the trait. It’s only true if you want to use Smite Condition while whirling to add more burst damage.
