Guild Wars 2

Not after they started attacking me no. Humans are the invaders but then again so are the Charr. The land was orginal “owned” by the Forgotten. The Charr stomped them into the floor and claimed the land of Ascalon. When the six gods brought humans to Tyria they gave them magic. This gave the Humans a big advantage over the Charr that had no knowledge of such a power. This spured them to find gods to back them. Kind of like an arms race today. They found the Titans not knowing they truely served Abadon. You probably know the rest after this.

Alarox.4590:

It’s part people being idiots, and part people knowing that most Guardians run healing/support builds.

Not completly unreasonable for other players to assume. With the constent nerfing of seemingly everything realted to Guardian damage builds: Anet sure wants us to play that style.

Xsorus.2507:

You basically got the Ranger Treatment from Beta, for the record, Our Spirits are still completely unusable in every regard…even after 3 months ago when the head dev Jon Sharp came to our forum and said Spirits were bad and needed to be changed.

The only change they ended up receiving…. was buffing a talent that increases their chance to go off from 30% to 50%…. thing is..they still have like a 10 second ICD…..

Well your spirits did get a 25% health increase on the Jan29th update. Not sure how much a difference this will make for them, buts its better than what we got.

All I have seen since launch are the repeated nerfing of Guardian builds. Slowly but surely we are getting pushed into fewer and fewer options to make gameplay interesting. I really did like my Guardian and the gameplay it used to offer. But with so much about the class being nerfed I ended up playing less and less because of the lack of options. I am saying games shouldn’t have balanced classes. But these pointless nerfs without adding anything new just gives me fewer reasons to play.

Looking down the road I see burn builds becoming useless. When they add an expansion with Primordus (which they probably will) we will be fighting lots of destroyers. Destroyers don’t take reduced damage from burning; they are completely immune to that condition.

Are they expecting Guardians to tank these hard hitting attacks from the nerf bat?

Would be great if we could set song for the crafting of a legendary…Ode to Joy.

George Steel.1804:

Because it shows the complete ignorance of whoever decided that this would be a good change. If our worst utilities get nerfed, what else is on the horizon?

Slowly but surely Guardians are being pushed into hammer builds.

ArashiKai.2496:

Only a guardian would shout “RETREAT!” and promptly charge the enemy team

We are faking out the enemy.

I mostly use spirit weapons for underwater combat. Compared to other classes I feel pretty weak when comes to fighting underwater. My build already has 10pts in virtues so I can just change my traits for longer spirit weapons duration. It helps to improve my damage output.

Big problems with spirit weapon builds are points need to get all the associated traits. Here is a comparison with meditations and shout based builds.

Meditation: Valor 30pts 2 traits
Total: 30pts 2 traits

Shouts: Valor 30pts 1 trait
Honor 10pts 1 trait
Total: 40pts 2 trait

Spirit Weapons: Zeal 30pts 3 traits
Radiance: 20pts 1 trait
Virtues 10pts 1 trait
Total: 60pts 5 traits.

This point distribution doesn’t leave a lot of room for anything else
I also don’t remember any minor traits that synergize well with spirit weapons, another downside to them. Now I know you don’t need to spend the full 60pts. I am just pointing out the difficulties in getting the full trait benefits for spirit weapons.

Correct me if I am wrong, but spirit weapons don’t scale with your power stat. Points placed in to Honor help to boost the heals from the mediation combo. Points into Honor and Virtues help to boost the healing from the boons you get from shouts in a AH build as well as boost their duration time. The points spent in Zeal don’t boost the spirit weapons damage. Virtue points do not boost their duration time or reduce cooldowns. Spirit Weapons only get a boost in condition damage from Radiance. Keep in mind that spirit weapons have slow attack speeds and Spirit Bow and Spirit Shield don’t actually attack. Only the Hammer and Sword deal damage. So the condition damage boost from points in Radiance only improve 50% of your spirit weapons.

In my opinion spirit weapons are a novelty/RP theme build.

Kind of odd how Warriors ge the line “For Great Justice”. I know that its a nod to the GW1 warrior skill. I just think it would fit better for the Guardian. After all, one of our virtues is called “Virtue of Justice”.

Lalangamena.3694:

greatsword is a solid leveling and soloing weapon.

you have
1- attack up to three people and gain might on third hit
2- high DPS whirl AOE -> whirl finisher
3- mobility skill (gap closer) with blind -> leap finisher
4- retaliation symbol-> light field
5- AOE CC (pull back), with dot, interrupt and another whirl finisher.

i believe it is one of the only weapon that have field and three finishers on the same weapon.

4 then 2 or 5 gives cleansing bolts to remove conditions
4 then 3 gives another retaliation duration.

overall the most versatile weapon with high DPS.
(hammer is mostly CC and staff is mostly support)

for offhand take scepter/focus.

I would agree with everything that you said about the GS. However I would disagree with your dismissal of the staff. For leveling/farming the staff offers more than just support. Keep in mind that you don’t need to get first hit on a mob nor land the killing blow in order to receive xp and loot. In other words the more targets you help kill the more xp and loot you get. The first staff skill is a mid-ranged fast (relatively) firing aoe attack that can hit targets through barriers. I have actually killed players in WvW through keep doors with this tactic. Completing events will also help you level faster. The staff’s third skill grants the swiftness boon which helps you reach those events before they finish. It’s very handy for general map exploration or escape as well. Don’t forget the third skill also creates a light field and deals damage. The staff’s second skill can pass through multiple mobs damaging them in the process. The only issue is that the orb has bug causing it to get stuck in terrain. You may need to detonate the orb increasing the cool down from three seconds to eleven.

I would recommend a greatsword/staff combination for leveling and farming tasks.
Oh and my credentials for giving advice are having played a Guardian since the beta weekend events, storyline completion, and 100% world map completion.

How about “Double Quick!”

Ditch the Dolyak runes. The health regen is fixed at 30hp and doesn’t get a boost from healing power. If you have a poison conditon then the 30hp becomes 20hp and is reduced even more by the poison’s damage over time.

2x Monk, 2x Water, and 2 major Sanctuary for a boost to your boons durations from shouts. You could also go with 6x runes of the soldier to get the boosts to vitality and toughness along with party wide condition removal from your shouts.

Twill.6217:

i don’t think bows or rifles or javelins suit the profession.

if it were up to me i would rework our greatsword to include ranged attack not unlike that from elementalist’s conjured sword.

after all, we already deal fire as condition. why not let us throw fire from the edge of our sword too?

Oh you sir don’t know your Guardian’s history. We are the spiritual successors to the Paragon class from Guild Wars 1. The Paragon’s weapon was a short ranged spear not unlike a javelin.

Mazer.8923:

I agree. I think a spear/shield combo would be cool (kind of like the paragon from gw1).

Imbagon! Imbagon! Imbagon!

I do like the idea of a short ranged weapon with faster firing speed than the scepter. Which can stay as our long ranged weapon.

Kind of refreshing to see someone talking about a fun themed build as opposed to pure stat based “Is this the pinnacle of efficiency” build. Plus 1 to you sir.

If you like the idea of a caster then you can try using a torch instead of a shield. The 1st skill can be used as a projectile, at the cost of longer cooldown time. The 2nd skill is a breath skill that does some pretty good damage. If you do this swap out Inscribed Removal for Radiant Fire to reduce the cooldown on torch skills. Since you’re not using a shield anymore swap out Honorable Shield for Meditation Mastery and take Smite Condition instead of Retreat. Removes a condition, deals damage, and does so with pretty blue flames to boot. I would also recommend swapping out Strength in Numbers for Purity.

May I also suggest Purging Flames instead of Hallowed Ground (unless your sieging). Deals more damage and cures more conditions and gives 3 stacks of might when you use Mighty Blow inside the ring. Also looks cool. Don’t forget the Hammer skill Ring of Warding creates a combo field of light. It doesn’t state this in the tooltip but using Mighty Blow inside the ring gives area retaliation.

For your gear you could go with Knights and tweak with zerker or Valkyrie depending on your tastes. With all this extra precision you won’t need the Sigil of Accuracy. Change it Sigil of Force and put a Sigil of Air or Sigil of Fire in the torch.

Should this post be in the dungeon forums?

@OP
Well keep in mind you’re not max level. You don’t have enough trait points to create some pretty good builds yet. I had the same misgivings when I first started. Trust me it get a lot better and a lot more fun.

I know what you mean about not knowing how much of an impact you had the party. The job of the Guardian can be a thankless one in this game. Since in most mmos it’s about the party heals. That’s something everyone can see. Its instant feedback on your contribution to the group. Yeah the regen boon does show the green numbers for each tic. But it’s not the same as watching a hp bar suddenly spike back up.

I watch my party’s portraits and when I see them getting swamped with conditions I try to remove as many as I can. Not much you can do though when someone isn’t bright enough to dodge roll out of a red circle. Keep in mind most players are so focused on their own attack chains they don’t notice conditions being removed or the boons being given. Let give you an example. I was running HotW P2 fighting Andal and his 2 champ quaggans. I go in first in true Guardian style to get their attention then the party jumped into the fight. Make no mistake, I had some moments where I was fighting for my avatar’s life but I held my own. Towards the end of the fight someone actually took the time (during the fight mind you) to type “wow this fight is cake.” That’s when I knew I was doing my job. He had no idea just how much damage they were dealing because it was all directed at me and not the party. Since Andal and his pets where using me as chew toy, my party could stand back out of his aoe range and focus all their energy into dealing damage.

I once stood in front of a keep door using my default staff attack. Acutally killed a guy on the other side.

You’re not supposed be able to stand in front of a boss just tank hit after hit. As it has already been stated you need to dodge roll, use blinds etc. 6x runes of the dolyak are worthless. The regen is only 30hp and can’t be boosted in any not even higher healing power.

I use the following in PvE and dungeons.
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mccM0V0zMMNLvmMNMmm9MxxaVoqcaqo

Armor
Soldier (pow/vit/tou) 2x superior runes of the monk, 2x superior runes of water, and 2 major runes of sactuary. This give me 50% boon duration. 60% total boost from the 10pts in Virtues.

Weapons
Hammer from AC dungeon (prec/vit/heal)
Cleric Staff
Berserker Scepter and Shield

Trinkets
Berserker Amulet and earrings. Knight’s rings with ruby jewels.
Purging flames creates a fire field that combos with hammer’s Mighty Blow to give you and your group 3 stacks of might for around 20 seconds. It’s not listed in the tool tip but hammer’s ring of warding creates a light field that combos with Might Blow as well for area retaliation.

Don’t be afraid to active Virtue of Justice which give your party a free burning attack plus 3 stacks of might from you Virtue points. If your dire straits pop Virtue of Resolve and Virtue of Courage followed Renewed Focus and if absolutely necessary pop the virtues again to stay alive. Your heal skill shelter also blocks attacks for 2 seconds.

The Staff is good for the might stacks and any points that you need the speed buff. Its default attack helps to kite mobs when needed. Scepter and Shield (or focus if you want) for prolonged ranged fights.

You can swap out Purging Flames for Wall of Reflection in some fights as well. When I am in underwater combat I swap out Master of Consecrations trait for the one that makes spirit weapons last longer. Between the spirit hammer and sword I have can have a weapon up 100% of the time. This helps out greatly with your damage output.

How about Auras instead of symbols. If GW2’s combat was more static then symbols would make sense. This game is all about movement so our skills should reflect that.

void.6705:

All of the daily and monthly are optional if you don’t want to do a part that is your choice. The same could be said for WvW, some people do not like to play WvW but still do it to get the monthly bonus. No matter what they do people will complain that they don’t like something about it, get over it. This is a game, it will never be perfect deal with it and have fun while doing it.

By that logic we should never give suggestions.

I couldn’t agree more. FotM doesn’t any extra reasons to run.

Make daily requirements a choice of 4/5 with specific dungeons as an added option. The dungeon would change on each day.

@OP
What kind of gear do you use? What traits do you have? What are you untility skills and elite?

I run AH in dungeons and solo PvE with no problems. I use a mix of Knight and Zerk armor for high crti chance. I have the trait Empowering Might which gives might boons (your as well) on every crit. In PvE a staff’s emopwer skill can act like a mini heal.

May I suggest taking purging flames a consecration skill for use with you hammer. Everytime you cross the ring made by this kill you lose a condition. Everytime the enemy cross the ring they recive burning a condition. Use mighty blow after purging flames to get 3 stacks of might. I have 20 points in Vitues so my Might stacks from this last around 20 seconds. This will help boost your damage output for you basic chain attacks and your symbol

I use Stand Your Ground and Hold the Line shouts. With my 6x runes of the soldier (revome condition on shout) I am hardly ever dealing with bleeds, posions (the death of any Guardian), or the annoying immoblizations, cripples, and knockdowns. I know that Save Yourselves give more boons and has longer boon duration. However, it also has a much longer cool down than Stand You Ground or Hold the Line.

I have 100% world completion and I wouldn’t give a second thought to going back to any area with my AH build. Solo or other wise.

I think he is refering to the Jan 28th update.

Szitler.4802:

as i mentioned i envision a guardian holding a sword and shield… i just wanted to try it out and safe to say i am liking it at the moment, ive heard that the scepter auto attack is very hit and missy as its slow and you have to aim it?

In pve you need to wait for they enemy to stop moving other wise the orbs will miss. If they are running directly at you your fine. In PvP scepter can be problem since players move around alot more than npcs. This make the scepter very unpopular for PvP Guardian builds.

Kita.7819:

We already have a trait that removes conditions when we shout!

Its also bugged. Won’t always remove conditions. The runes always work.

Yes the transmute trick does work. You could have a warrior with guardian symbols on the armor.

@OP
Have a look at this greatsword
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ebon_Vanguard_Greatsword

I recommend keeping both scepter and staff in your bag for secondary weapons. Based on how my party performs and the dungeon I switch between. Scepter for when we could use some ranged damage. I use the shield a lot as my off hand. I can give protection boons to my group and shield against ranged enemies. I can also pop the dome and give a small group heal. Some guardians ignore the staff, don’t be one of them. It’s a great weapon for kitting (protect Hodgin from gravelings) and not many would turn down extra stacks of might. The symbol of swift also does modest aoe damage and give speed boost to those that step inside. I personally think it’s better than the retreat skill since it has a shorter cool down. For you elite use Renewed Focus.

I highly recommend Hold the Line and Stand Your Ground shouts for nice synergy with your hammer and AH. I would also suggest Purging Flames consecration skill. An aoe that burns foes removes conditions and combos with you MB from the hammer. Others can also use the field to make their own combos.

You can use 6x superior runes of the soldier for extra condition removal. You could also use 2x superior monk runes, 2x superior water runes, and 2x superior runes of the earth to get 50% protection boon duration and 30% duration to everything else.

My advice is don’t focus on healing power. Treat it as supplemental to whatever you trying to do. You will get better damage mitigation by not standing in aoes, blinding foes, dodging, and boon application.

Can’t comment. You need to post your build so we can have a better idea of what you need.

ThatOneArtistGamer.2914:

@Tyber Valens

Thanks for the information! I was eyeing those runes in particular myself for more added shout utility. I was mainly using Retreat as a buffer shout skill and a map-clearing tool, wasn’t intending to use it for dungeons unless running back to help allies from a wipe. I do heavily agree with you on Purging Flames- great choice there.

I also intended to run 10 in virtues, and yes, I have ran Renewed Focus with the exact tactic you spoke of. I’m glad I wasn’t too far off in my initial design for my guardian. Very glad to have all this cleared up for me- thank you greatly.
__________________________________________________________________
Lastly, I would like to make a small addendum to my initial post here (and this question is for everyone), what are your thoughts on healing power?

Now, whenever I’ve tried to apply it, the results were always unsatisfactory compared to the scaling of other stats- but after talking to some of my friends, they actually advise that I keep it as a mandatory stat, which initially made me hesitant. I even decided to get a set just in good faith, but it has yet to show any promise.

I just need to know if my reluctance holds any water or if I’m just not building correctly. Thanks.

Well if your friends have something that works then great. Healing for Guardians can be kind of tricky. Pouring points into healing sacrifices both toughness and power in a game that (imo) prizes dps and damage mitigation. Personally I would rather rely on blocks, blinds, and dodges mixed with protection boon to survive. I also avoid healing focused builds because I think the devs will pay a real close attention to prevent outright tanking. We have already seen a nerf to AH with the changes to Vigorous Precision mechanic. I just don’t feel comfortable pouring gold and time into equipment for a build that the devs want to prevent.

Now I am not saying healing can’t be used. I use AH in my current build support build. However I use AH to supplement my boons which are the main focus of my build.

Soldier armor from AC or HotW has become popular. I am currently collecting a set. Currently I use a mix of knights and berseker armor and jeweler. Berserk weapon and superior runes of the soldier. I like your choice of weapons so I will not comment futher on them.

May I suggest swaping out Retreat for Purging flames a consecration skill. This skill creates a field that your team can use to remove condtions every time they cross it. The field will also burn enemies that cross so you can kite enemys around causing even more burns. Finally with your greatswords leap skill you can generate a flame shield that also burns foes (and looks cool). Other players can also use the field to generate their own combos. If you find you like this skill I would suggest putting 10pts into Virtues so you can use a trait (forget the name atm) to reduce the cooldown time and increase consecrations duration time.

For your elite I would suggest Renewed Focus. This skill can be used on the move (wasn’t orginially) and recharges your Virtues. A good tactic is simply fire off all your virtues then pop renewed focus to get them back again. If you have you the 10pts into virtues you get the minor trait that makes your virtues give boons when activated. This combined with AH makes for some nice synergy.

Yeah some mobs can ignore our wards. I find that graphics sometimes last longer than the actual effect, giving the appearence that a mob has ignored a ward. Also remeber that in PvP enemy players can simple dodge roll past them.

Attempting to heal as in other games is impossible. We can’t target a specific ally to heal them. As stated above our “healing skills” are on long cooldowns and have significate draw backs. When we use a tome guardians lose all the utilities , our weapons, and our self heal. You would be better off focusing on boon application or condition removal. Its more reliable and more useful in the long run.

For future reference. When you post your build state PvE, Dungeons (even specific dungeon), sPvP, or WvW. This will help people to comment on the function of the build. I will assume that your looking for a general PvE build.

Generally its a good idea to run with 1 melee and 1 ranged weapon equiped at all times. This will give you more tactially options. Some will run with both melee or both ranged weapons. I would only recomend doing this once you get a feel for the combat.

Melee weapons
Hammer is a very popular support build wepeaon since its 3rd attack gives protection boons to those in the symbol. Greatsword is also very popular in PvE especially for farming as its 3rd attack gives you might boons. Mace is absolutly a support weapon, but I just don’t see it being used a lot. Not saying you shouldn’t if you like it though. Sword would be your single target weapon. Its the fastest melee weapon we have atm.

Off Hands
Depends on who you talk too. Many seem to favor the focus over the shield. Both are support so just play with them and see which one “feels right” in battle. The torch is mostly used for the damage. Again like the mace I just don’t see it used a lot.

Ranged
Scepter is the more damage based weapon. For support I use the staff. The #4 skill Empower stacks might boons on your party and gives some healing. Using this with Aultruistic Healing from the Valor trait line turns the skill into a mini self heal. The 3rd skill symbol of swiftness gives anyone in it a speed boost and also damages enemies. The 2nd skill is good but its kina bugged. Sometimes the orb get stuff in terrian so you will need to detonate which in turn increases the cool down from 3.5 seconds to 11 seconds. The 1st skill is a short/mid ranged aoe. This is create when your kitting mobs around for other to kill. The attack also hits targets though other objects.

Traits
Radiance isn’t the best place to spend 30pts if your going for support imo. Valor, Honor, and Virtues trait lines have abilites that work well with support utilites. Your current build seems to use signets alot. They are okay but not really for a support build. If you want to support your team look at shouts and consecrations. Both of which benefit from the Honor and Virtues lines. When you hit max level start with Valor 30pts, Honor 30pts, and Virtues 10pts as a baseline. Then shift points around as you fine tune your play style.

Not sure the type gear you have in mind. Power/Toughness/Vitality (soldier), Power/Precision/Toughness (knights), and Power/Toughness/Healing (cleric) are popular armor types among Guardians.

Hope my ramble helps and welcome to the game and our guardian ranks.

I am running a shout build as well with 6x soldier runes. The remove condition on shout works on the other members of your part as well. Basically turns your shouts into aoe condition removal in addition to the boons provided.

Something to else to consider are the weapons you’re useing. If your using a hammer then the 2x monk runes, 2x water runes, 2x earth runes setup would provide nearly permanent protection boon. If your using a greatsword then swap out the 2x earth for 2x strenth runes and you will get 50% might duration.

Have you played a warrior?

If you have and just wanting to play a Guardian, look up Silentstorm.7531 on these forums. He made several good builds that you can change to fit your play style.
Guardians are not the best condition damage dealers around. We are in the boon application and condition removal business. The only condition damage we have is burning; which Guardians can’t spam in the same way other professions can stack say bleeds. You can trait 15 into radiance so you can pop Virtue of Justice (next attack causes burning) every time you kill a foe. This only works if you’re fighting trash mobs in an event. Against bosses you will be waiting for the normal cool down. You could also trait into the Virtues line that activates VoJ every 4th attack. The 1h sword works well with this trait since it’s the fastest weapon we have at the moment.

In my opinion though Guardian burns are supplemental not the primary method we deal damage.

Just one Guardians opinion.

soothingvapors.8564:

I recently respecced from an AH/Shout built to a Sword-focused meditation/blind build in PVE and it’s been a lot of fun. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsd7elYgiDnGSKEf4Eh1DAeQ/VVIeXPgIFbIA;TQALLGWsjYSA. (Alternate-set MH weapon varies between Scepter and Mace).

Lots of damage, great survivability with all the blinds and blocks, and it’s just plain fun to teleport all over the place setting kitten on fire. Seems to be working fine up to fractal 10, haven’t tried it any further than that.

What type of armor and runes do you use. I am kinda bored now with my GS/Staff build and I am looking into other weapon setups just for a change.

I don’t mean to sound like a jerk but its sounds like you answered your own questions.

All the options you list for condition removal or damage mitigation are just that, options. It’s for you to decide the combination of skills, traits, gear, food and upgrades fitting your play style.

The classes in GW2 are designed to allow for flexible gameplay. Your blurb about AH compared to MF is a great example. If you’re going for a supporting role in a group AH (and I would add EM) are great choices. If your team doesn’t need another support Guardian or you’re soloing, MF synergizes with the damage you can do with mediations.

Star Ace.5207:

Tyber Valens.5148:

Munrock.3092:

KensaiZen.3740:

…but if you want to be a trinity healer, go water ele.

Not sure this is sound advice… telling people this will just turn ineffective guardians into ineffective elementalists!

If you want to be a trinity healer, go different game.

If they are going to be ineffective then point them to the eles. That way we Guardians don’t get the bad press.

Why not focus on having fun, rather than who’s being more effective? I have never played with anyone and second- guessed whether they are being effective or not-it’s NOT my business, even if they are in my party. This is not a business or job, where “maximum effectiveness” is required. Further, it’s is arrogant to presume that only the way we choose to play is the only “effective” way to play-even if that would be the way the majority usually plays.

All things have a right to grow.

(If people want to play a “healer”, they just can’t, even with Elementalist-at least not in the way it used to be with Monks. There are no “trinity” roles in this game. that said, both Guardians and Elementalists can apply good heals over time, supplementing each other character’s survival capabilities.)

Please reread what I wrote. Only this time bring your sense of humor along.

And no all things do not have a right to grow.

I was glad to hear say we need to get rid of the need to pay a trainer in the capital cities just change our builds. In GW1 we could save builds as templates loading them up while in any outpost for free. The current system is a step backwards.

Munrock.3092:

KensaiZen.3740:

…but if you want to be a trinity healer, go water ele.

Not sure this is sound advice… telling people this will just turn ineffective guardians into ineffective elementalists!

If you want to be a trinity healer, go different game.

If they are going to be ineffective then point them to the eles. That way we Guardians don’t get the bad press.

@Baneblade

Is this for PvP or PvE?

hmm well Judge’s Intervention + Smite Condtion + Purging Flames + Monk’s Focus gives some selfish and “mystical” game play. Have you had a look at Silent’s Berserker build on this forum? Pretty good build focused on damage not support.

If your going for the synergy between AH and EM you will want a much higher crit chance. For higher crit chance and damage use zerk gear.

Edenwolf.6328:

Tyber Valens.5148:

Edenwolf.6328:

Does armor reduce damage from all attacks(besides condition) including magical missiles and such, a fireball for example?

I would assume your talking about the basic attacks from eles etc. My guess is yes. Its the conditions those attacks apply that will ignore your toughness stat.

I’m talking about all magic based attacks. In other games magic attacks are treated differently from physical damage.

Ok look this combat system doesn’t use magic attacks and physical attacks. Read the following link http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Damage

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Let us run with zealot defense please. And I’ll be sooo happy.

Preach on brother! Remeber when WW on the greatsword was stationtary? Then they changed it so we could move but didn’t change zealot defense. Its almost like the devs don’t want us to use the sword.

The only mob I can think of that “kites” is the Ettin. They take big steps back which can be a problem with symbols. I do see mobs moving back with normal attacks, that, over time, can travel a good distance.

@Sydgame
As stated previously we are the least moblie class in the current game. This has caused many to complain about eles and thiefs being able to just teleport away. Other classes have siginets or traits giving them a perma speed boost. The Guardians must make the most out of limited options.

Edenwolf.6328:

Does armor reduce damage from all attacks(besides condition) including magical missiles and such, a fireball for example?

I would assume your talking about the basic attacks from eles etc. My guess is yes. Its the conditions those attacks apply that will ignore your toughness stat.

Got to be the candy cane. Nothing says merry xmas like banishing them with candy cane.

Hmm Interesting. Have you thought about swapping out Strength in Numbers for Retributive Armor? That would give you an extra 4% crit chance.