Guild Wars 2

@Aphasia

Are you talking about cummulative damage of the whirlwind or a single blow?

Yes, the cumulative damage (the number show at the end of a whirl).

We have two with cast time: Smite Condition and Merciful Intervention, but I do agree that the trait is worthless even for a specialized meditation build.

Sword/Focus is a better combination than Sword/Shield due to the added burst and extra survivability in melee. Scepter/Shield gives you a knockback while kiting.

December.3714:

I don’t have time to watch the video but i’ll give this go later tonight! The only thing I didn’t really follow is the switching of the weapons, but I’ve decided to go with a sword instead of a mace for now to increase mobility even more.

EDIT: Oh and I’m really impressed to see my crit chance at 55%. I don’t think the Right hande Strength trait is woven into that number either, so it may be at 70%?

http://i.imgur.com/Kyp7P.jpg Updated hero’s sheet

Right-handed strength doesn’t show on your spreadsheet. Sword is better than Mace unless you want to be a tank, support, or area denial build.

December.3714:

I was able to squeeze in a match before heading out. What I like is the increased survive-ability, but I definitely noticed a decrease in my CCing. Bane is really good for knockdowns, I was able to knock them down, then use the focus 2 ability to aoe the ground beneath them. Maybe I’ll switch a weapon sigil/rune for some kind of frozen ability or something. But I was still able to come in first on my first game

http://i.imgur.com/NMUs5.jpg

Thanks for the advice! I’ll continue to build on this.

You have scepter chain of light and shield’s knockback. Try this combo, pre-drop smite, chain of light, switch to sword, virtue of justice and teleport on top then Zealot’s Defense while activating Shield of Wrath (won’t interrupt ZD). Auto-attack a few and Shield of Wrath will explode doing even more burst damage. For sigil, use whatever you feel like lacking. I use sigil of air and fire/blood for more burst damage.

Switch out the shield trait in valor, replace with Monk’s Focus. Replace Contemplation of Purity with Smite’s Condition. Not a fan of Bane Signet, Stand Your Ground is much better in PvP (finishing off/reviving without being interrupted). Switch the 10 points in Honor into Zeal for Fiery Wrath (10% more damage). Replace the useless Renewed Focus with Tome of Courage. Use Runes of Divinity + Knight’s Amulet and now you have a decent mix of damage and survivability. Use sword/focus and scepter/shield. That is the typical one handed 10/30/30/0/0 offensive meditation build for sPvP, one of the best at 1v1 and fun for hot joined games.

I run the build above during stress test. You’re pretty much using meditations for heals (Smite Condition and Judge’s Intervention heal for 2k each use on a 16 and 32 secs cd). Here’s a video showing the survivability and damage I can pull off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAQAClTLWXY

Hammer is awesome in dungeons with its protection spam, CCs, and blast finisher on a short cooldown. Outside of dungeons, it’s not my weapon of choice.

Replace Retreat with Signet of Judgment. That alone is 50% up time for retaliation.

Try an offensive meditation 10/30/30/0/0 build with sword/focus and scepter/shield.

Draeka.5941:

ens.9854:

I have a hard time making a guardian build that does NOT include 30 valor. Triple (or double) meditation is perhaps THE strongest setup guardian has available, with instant stunbreaks, condition removals, and top notch self healing without even spec’ing for it (smite condition has a very low cooldown).

The other grandmaster basically gives you a second signet (or better) in wvw because of the mass amount of buffs you apply with staff 4, not to mention all the buffs you can apply with shouts and virtues. Don’t forget, although the description wasn’t updated, you now get -20% cooldown AND +90 toughness on the shield trait; also don’t forget that shield 5 heal is now enabled in all areas.

I honestly don’t see how a guardian, who innately has pitiful HP totals, can get much done without resorting to healing provided by 30 valor…

It’s actually quite easy, though it is certainly more geared towards true support, rather than just ensuring your health stays above a certain point. For instance, putting 30 into Honor instead will make your symbols that much more effective, while giving you more healing and health overall. Toughness is nice and all, but I get that already through my heavy armor, runes, protection boons, etc.

The real problem here is that Valor has some of our most powerful traits at the end, which makes people wanting to overplay the tree as if it’s spectacular; it’s really not. Most of its traits are highly specialized, which means switching mid-combat lowers your efficacy. The two grandmaster traits are really there to do the same thing: heal you if you’re solo, or heal you if you’re in a group. They give nothing to the Guardian’s innate support ability to the rest of the group, which is why I say the line isn’t good. You give up too much utility to a group by devoting 30 points into it, since the lower traits just aren’t spectacular.

Virtues is perhaps just as powerful overall, but it’s lackluster after 20 points invested.

Radiance is a good tree, and perhaps more balanced than Honor, but it suffers from too many specific traits.

Zeal is, well…Zeal. Broken Grandmasters tend to do that. Still, good spirit weapon base, so it gives at least some utility while pushing out self boons.

Honor, imho, is the best line. You only have one weapon trait, but it affects three different weapons—two support, one dps (in theory). Your shouts, symbols, and virtues are affected by traits, which means you’ll gain something from it no matter what you’re using—sans meditations, of course. In fact, it’s biggest weakness is that the non-Grandmaster traits are so effective, that they would overshadow the Grandmasters even if they worked right/better. That’s what I think makes a good tree: that the lower traits are so good, you invest 30 points just to slot them all, Grandmasters bekitten

Valor is a decent enough line to sink 30 into, don’t get me wrong…I just don’t agree that Valor is what makes the strongest Guardian.

It’s true that the Honor tree is really good. But for a damage build that needs the extra survivability, Valor is just better. It provides damage boost with crit damage and survivability with toughness and Monk’s focus. It’s just different playstyles. I prefer to stay alive and deal as much damage as I can (still supporting with cleansing bolts, inspired virtues, wall of reflects, etc..).

The 19800 was on the champion during Temple of Grenth event. I also crit some poor soul in WvW for 11k. My lowest is like 4k with minimal crit and most of the projectiles miss. It has to do a lot with positioning and the luck for crits (well, it helps to have 56% chance). I made a post about whirling wrath. You can click on my name and search for it.

7000 to 11000. My highest is 19800 by cheesing might and vulnerability.

Greatsword’s Symbol of Wrath gives retaliation then combines with Whirl of Wrath for cleansing bolts. Hammer gives protection, and its blast finisher provides retaliation. If you’re using sword or scepter, you have to pair it with either shield or focus (focus gives regen and shield gives protection/group heal). Heck, even out giving out light fields is supporting since other classes can utilize it.

For guardian, no matter what you do, you will support others in some form or another. It’s stapled to the class.

Hammer/Greatsword switching deal tons of damage. Hammer #1 is the best damage chain in the game.

Guardians can do great damage, and I don’t see where the myth that they can’t comes from.
They can’t do _burst_damage properly. Sustained damage is no problem at all in the right build.

We are also capable of doing burst damage. My whirl of wrath in PvE/WvW crit for 7-11k with good positioning.

I personally love the Valor tree and meditations. I run Retributive Armor (switching out to Purity if require), Meditation Mastery, and Monk’s Focus. All of which benefits my offensive meditation build. I do agree that Valor is not a tree you dabble in. Outside of Meditation builds, at most you can put is 10 for Retributive Armor or Purity.

Deep Zeal build is only for spirit weapons.

Ghastly Sword FTW!

For a leveling build, you have to state that picking up Renewed Justice is the most important (15 in Radiance) then pick up 5 Virtue and 10 Zeal (Fiery Wrath). That will be around level 40. After that, you can spend however you like (either with Zeal or Honor in your build). I honestly see no points in getting past 5 Virtue since once you complete Zeal and Honor, you’ll have points to spend in Radiance instead of Virtue and hit 80.

I view Valor tree as a perfect combination between offense and defense (crit damage and toughness). Monk’s Focus heals for 2k which is amazing since you can have more than one meditation with one of them is on a 16 seconds cooldown, remove a condition, and do decent damage (I usually run two meditations, the last utility is situational).

Also, with my current gears (3134 attack, 56% crit chance), the 30% crit damage is better than 300 power from Zeal. I gain about 9.5% more damage with power (an increase from 3134 attack to 3434) vs 16.8% with crit damage. If you throw in the 5% greatsword damage, it’s only 14.5%. I do more damage with better survivability thanks to Monk’s Focus. I also am not taking into the advantage of condition duration from Zeal since burn caps out at 25 seconds. Virtue of Justice in a group of 5 already hits the cap.

With my 10/25/30/0/5, it’s probably the best out there at dealing damage (10% on burn, 10% on conditioned target, 30% crit damage) while keeping decent armor (2400) and Monk’s Focus.

I personally don’t want to go deeper than 5 Virtue unless I’m gonna make a Virtues build. Those 10 points can be spent in Radiance to pick up Radiance Power for the 10% damage. Also, retaliation doesn’t shine in PvE as much as in PvP due to mobs slower swings.

I personally dislike Elusive Power. Generally, you want to save endurance so you are able to dodge during critical moment. The damage bonus is only increased by 5% at half (dodge once) and 10% when you’re all out of endurance (dodge twice). Currently, there’s not a single clue that is it a binary or a continuous effect. So if you don’t dodge, you lose the damage. If you dodge, you’re risking having no endurance (even with vigor) for the attacks. You can try to only dodge once to keep the 5% damage, but you only get half of the trait’s effect.

I’m using offensive meditation build. The point of it is to stay alive as long as possible while doing the best damage you can do. It’s also pretty versatile and can use any weapons (well, won’t recommend trying to dps with a mace). However, the build won’t shine til you hit 80 and get all the traits. I run greatsword mostly and use hammer for dungeon. On switch weapon can be any combination.

No denying that Zeal tree needs some love. I think some of the spirit weapon traits need to be combined.

I build an offensive guardian and my job is to damage. I don’t need to bring support utilities to my group because that is not my role (even though I still do with Inspired Virtues, Wall of Reflect, ToC, etc…). Monk’s Focus and Meditations increase my survivability and just what I need to go full glass cannon (all berserkers).

Inb4 “Go reroll warrior if you want damage”.

Symbol of Wrath doesn’t cause burning. It’s either a bug or a typo.

Ruby Orb x 6 or Rune of Divinity

Whirling Wrath has two damage components, the swings themselves and the projectiles (the random blue light flying out of the whirls). Since the projectiles fire randomly in 360 degree, it creates quite a noticeable damage swing between having a few or a lot hit the target.

To minimize the randomness, the best way I’ve found is to use Whirling Wrath while inside the target (stacking on top or as close as possible). This will give you a higher chance to have more projectiles hit the target. However, there’s two things to keep in mind:

The first is mob repositioning. The target will try to reposition if you’re too close to them. This is not big of a deal since you can always move accordingly to their position. If the mob targets a different player/NPC, it will not try to reposition against you.

The second problem is target collision. In PvE, you will have target collision against the mob you targeted. I’ve found two ways to work around this. It’s either you deactivate your target (once you cancel it, you can stack on the mob) or you can just move in a spiral toward the mob.
Thanks to the info by Reihert, you can turn target collision off by unchecking Melee Attack Assist box under General Option tab.

The size of the mob is also a big factor. The bigger it is, the more projectiles it will hit. With this, I am now able to have a more consistent Whirling Wrath damage (and even extreme amount of damage like during Temple of Grenth event, I had a 19.7k crit). Give me some feedback if this is working for you or not (calculate how many hit per Whirling Wrath, not the overall damage).

A repost of my other thread.

I’ll rather have Merciful Intervention a target teleport that heals everyone in that area.

Traited Smite Condition heals for 2k, on a 16 secs cd, remove a condition, AND deal a decent chunk of damage. No. Meditations don’t suck.

If you want to be a “true” support role, may as well stash your greatsword and use Mace/Focus with Scepter/Shield or Hammer on switch. Then spec for symbol/shout/virtue build.

For WvW big battle, most of the time you either sit back and deal damage with scepter or support your team with staff. I usually only enter melee on stragglers (immobilze, teleport into a one shot, then run away). If you want to be a full time melee, you can only do small battles like attacking caravan. If you want range, you can probably make a damage build with 30 in radiance for the 15% crit.

If you’re running the 0/20/0/30/20, you’ll have the same armor as a glass cannon thief (with the same stats you have right now).

What’s your build? What were you doing (DEs, dungeons, or PvP)? How did you die (to conditions or to spike damage, getting swamped, etc…)?

Not my cup of tea. You will find some downtime between your spirit weapons, and I like consistency.

Play what you like. Decide for yourself if you want to do damage or support or a little mix of both. I suggest to have all weapons in your bag to swap them accordingly to the situation. I can survive great if not better than others (to my experience) even though I wear full berserkers (no hp whatsoever, 10.8k at 80).

Greatsword’s Whirl of Wrath can deal more (much more if you’re lucky) than ZD on a single target given that most your projectiles hit. It’s harder in PvP because they will not stay in the same spot for you to stack on. You can still pull it off by cc then whirl on top of them.

Full berserker set with no pts in Honor will give the guardian almost 11k hp (10.8), but I hardly ever die in dungeons thanks to Monk’s Focus. In SPvP, an offensive meditation guardian has 19k hp/2500 armor which is not bad given the damage (I can blow up squishies in 5 seconds).

Summon Spirit Armor

Summon a spirit armor that will periodically grant boons to your and your allies. Give the guardian Protection and Retaliation equal to the duration.
Command: Grant Quickness to your allies.

Just because I’m falling in love with Mesmer’s Time-warp.

Alarox.4590:

I go almost 100% melee in explorable dungeons (I’m lv 80) and I use completely damage oriented gear with a rather damage oriented build.

If you keep moving, conserve your dodges, and mix in weakness/protection and blind/aegis, you should be able to survive pretty well. But you shouldn’t expect to “tank”.

I’m the same. As long as I don’t get hit back to back to back or being hit by the one shot of doom (if I do, I deserve to die), I can survive pretty well in melee between dodge, my heal, and monk’s focus.

Meet the new leader of Destiny’s Edge (yes, it’s me)

Great work. Now every new guardians have a place to start.

For leveling, 15 Radiance for Renewed Justice then 5 Virtue for Inspired Virtues. The rest is preference.

Ability to reset and spam Virtue of Justice on AoE (thus apply Might with Inspired Virtues for yourself and the everyone else) is a must for any leveling build (especially with Greatsword AoE).

For leveling, pick up Renewed Justice (15 Radiance) and Inspired Virtues (5 Virtue). After that, it’s all preference.

Xethos.3179:

I’m sorry I didn’t spend the time posting a link to an example but..

Meditations guardian is pretty neat for those who are more selfish. All variations of it use 30 points in valor with the 20% meditation recharge trait and the meditation-healing trait. ^^ perhaps someone will link an example

Greatsword Offensive Meditation:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#Mccz0mz0mrnaomrnvmapx0VMMozob

I’m just being real. The build has flaws, and I’m pointing them out. Most of people doing TPvP are bringing quite a bit of condition removals due to the amount of condition stacked teams. They are also more likely to use the same build in hot join matches (like myself having so used to the same setup). For each block, you’ll only get 1 secs of burn which is not much. I know your idea, and it just might work given a few more buffs to the build (longer burn on block would be a start).

As for retaliation build, I used this in the beta: http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MccozcM0mrRNomrRNo0axaGMzVbMMm

It was nerfed since then however. Signet of Judgement was nerfed so that you can’t have it up all the time (was 16 sec cds with a 15 secs duration). But with combination of Signet of Judgement, SYG, and retal on virtues, it should be up most of the time. I have smite condition + monk’s focus because I’ve never really run a build without it and have grown too dependent (you can spend those 30 points anywhere else you see fit to increase survivability). Use soldier’s amulet with Rune of the Warrior or Solider. For weapon choices, you’ll want to be as defensive as possible since the goal is to have the guy killing himself.

Rastafish.7190:

So I should keep pretty much one of each thing?

Yes

My on switch can be anything. Like in the Kohler boss in ACx, I prefer mace/focus to block out his pull. Focus or Shield, it all depends on situation. Such as Kulu, the golem boss in SE, having shield to absorb the fire balls makes the fire much easier for you group. Use all your potential and the group will love you

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#Mccz0mz0mrnbomrnvmapx0VMMozob

All my gears are exotic berserker (power/precision/crit damage), sitting at 3222 attack, 56% crit chance, 102% crit damage (that’s 152% extra damage on each crit). My hp is only at 10221, and my armor is 2427 thanks to 30 points in valor.

The build has the all powerful combo Renewed Justice + Inspire Virtues which makes leveling a breeze.

I go with a glass cannon meditation 10/25/30/0/5 build for maximum damage. As long as I don’t get hit back to back to back or caught in the obvious 5 min charging one-shot of doom, I can bring my health back up with Monk’s Focus (conditions are laughable with this build since I have Signet of Resolve, Smite Condition, and even Purity in the Valor tree if I want more). I generally prefer to have scepter/shield on switch due to a lot of fights, I need to stay back at range. I bring some support with Wall of Reflection, Inspired Virtue, and Tome of Courage.

I just checked and it seemed that it doesn’t increase my armor.

Apraxas.3685:

Greatsword

• Symbol of Wrath
  Will not burn enemies as description indicates, it will deal damage every second like other symbols though.

I don’t think it’s a bug, more like a confusing description. Under the tool tip, there’s no indication that the spell will cause burning (You will usually see something like: Burning (5s): 1337 Damage)

Leaumkitten

it is just me or the projectiles of whirling wrath never do damage unless you are at melee range?

The projectiles do work out of melee range; however, the range is really short. I’m pretty confident it works because I sometimes kill a critter randomly that’s not in my melee range.