Guild Wars 2

i entirely see your point, OP. but you ought not let others affect how you feel about yourself or see your world. : )) you made a huge accomplishment. you should know that.

it’s not less of an achievement. if anything, it could be seen more as one. you crafted it by hand, one mat at a time, one HotW token at a time. so don’t let anyone take that away from you. it’s up to you, not ANet or those lucky kittens.

Buttercup.5871:

I’ve been trying it too for the last few days. Knight’s + melandru runes + lemongrass soup. While yes it makes you more survivable – in some situations – I’m not too impressed with my loot, ie. my damage contribution in WvW and PvE. It’s a big trade off, and I wasn’t even dying with my previous armor.

i feel relatively similar to this. i might have to change up my gear and specs a bit to make it more worthwhile. key thing is the times i felt it did help me last longer, it more or less prolonged it a BIT longer, but not enough to “make a difference” per se. but i’ll keep testing it and giving it a shot. am determined to make it work and create another beast.

@OP – as more or a less a sole Guardianeer, i started off heading towards an AH build. first as 0/15/30/20/5, then i tried 0/5/30/30/5, then 0/0/30/30/10 and i still consistently play AH builds every so often depending on what i’md doing, who i’ll be playign with etc, but i’ve also learnt to branch out and try out different builds going from 30 in valor, down to 0 in valor. and in terms of gear, i started off in pretty much full knight’s. then moving on to mixing in berserker’s, etc.. just experiment, but seems like you’ve decided to start like this and it’s a good place to start : )))

just so you know, i’m a huge fan of the hammer. not just for AH builds. though some may argue it’s not as effective as other weapons. either or though, i just wanted to point out that Empower from the staff is different from the trait in the Honor line, Empowering Might.. just to avoid any confusion : )) many AH guards, might be a in the past thing though, swear by empowering might, but i honestly don’t feel it’s that effective or needed. i’d rather take other traits in that line such as longer or larger symbols for added AoE or more DPS, etc.

whereas Empower from the staff, iirc, stacks 12 stacks of might onto you and 4 other allies. so your math was similar and IS corrcet in that each Empower (Staff #4), you will be placing 12 stacks of might onto 5 peopel total, and each boon / stack heals for 72 = 12 * 5 * 72 = 4.3k heal. plus you get all the might stacks. so it’s not too shabby.

hammer chain #1 followed up by a mighty blow, you have protection ticking, as well as AoE retal boon given to those around you, if near enough. another handful of small heals.

just to add some light, in PvP, i have seen enough videos AND experienced first hand from DPS Guards what they can do.

and if you’re dead, you won’t be running anywhere for anyone to chase anyways.

ah, Blazin – sorry! i should clarify. i wasn’t linking my build, but rather jsut the site to use for WvW/PvE builds. lol i’ll edit my post! XPPPP

was confused for the last page or two… but glad it’s back to the JQ/BG/SoR love (?) hate relationship that i’ve come to adore.

the forums are so wacky XDD. i can’t even follow this thread properly. are OP’s posts was deleted?

though i will say, calling out certain severs or guilds aren’t exactly called for either.

and how is having leg specialist Wars on AC’s cheating? genuine question here.

thoroughly enjoyed this read as much as i learned from it.

personal highlights:

• /brofist
• (EDIT: aww now i’m sadfacepanda too. just had to try table flipping ascii guy too)
• and i’m gonna start using Didyoubestbear IRL from now on, if you don’t mind. ; ))

great tips here and glad i seem to be on the right track. relatively new and found a bunch of “friends” i can group with already. though sometmies still hard to catch all of them online. so i will contineu to solo and continue to better myself. thanks for this!

hmmm. i feel like that’s kind of tough. i can only speak from a Guardian’s perspective.. but these are usually my personal thresholds, unless if i’m going for any specialized build:

Attack: 3k (Power ~1,890)
Crit chance: 40% (Precision ~1,680)
Crit damage: 60%

and i strive to hit these stats as i feel it’s most “balanced” in this sense. and it works for me. in terms of thinking how much precision you can give up for power, or how much crit dmg needed for a certain amount of crit chance.. it’s tough. since the damage equation takes into account skill coefficients as well as your opponents / mobs armor as well, i feel it’s hard to do hard math.

can’t wait to go back home tonight, get on SAB, and all i hear will be “yeahhhhhhhhh boi”

for those advocating for your own servers, please do so and in a constructive manner. no need to drag other servers down. there’s enough bickering in the T1 thread down in the depths of that giant abyss. if you can ignore those on the forums, T1 is not a bad place. i love SoR and have much respect for both JQ and BQ. as well as various T2 servers I’ve had the honor of playing against. let’s get back to helping OP decide which server to go to and not arguing over who’s server is better or worse for our own agenda.

in terms of queues, apart from reset night, i usually don’t get huge queues. i play Oceanic (am from Hong Kong, so GMT+8). there will be the oddball 5 – 10 min queue depending on hwo the match up is running.

we’ve gained a few awesome guilds in this timeslot, as well as players working together more, becoming more organized and learning how to play against our opponents so it’s been more and more fun each time. though i will say that JQ still definitely has superior numbers at these times. not to say we can’t hold our own though, both BG and SoR.

though, at the same time, i would also advise you to stay in T2 for now and test it out even more since you said you’ve been gone for so long.

wherever you choose to go, wishing you the best of luck. just don’t forget to have fun.

that’s a very nice setup. : ))
i’ve been recently intrigued by the torch again (haven’t touched it since lvl 60 early on!) so i’ll give it a shot too. quite similar to my “DPS” / Roaming build as well. though i have the lone 10 pts up in Zeal for Fiery Wrath. i’d assume the way you run it gives you even more survivability.

at first with all that valkyrie / beryl gear, i thought your crit chance wouldn’t be as high. but i assume you’re running around 46% crit chance on the GS and 61% with sword/torch (with oil). which is really nice for that high crit dmg. though armor is a bit low for my personal taste. ; )) have yet to see the vid though! so looking forward to that.

[edited for clarity: and just for fun, i like using this site for showing PvE/WvW builds : )) since you can link all the details – gear, trnikets, upgraes, consumables, etc:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/ ]

energy IS always good especially if you have dodge heals.
though just in case, OP, if you’re adamant on having Fire in the OH, i wouldn’t suggest having Energy in the MH (or any other on-swap, on-crit sigils), as they share cooldowns. and you want to have that extra bar of endurance reliably when you need it.

oooh i like giving names to builds lol. i’ll take a look after me lunch. ; )) and that’s awesome you added map specific defensive builds. the more sPvP i played, the more i realized certain builds worked better on different maps… so looking forward to check ’em out.

i actually feel Writ of Exaltation is key to any symbol build. so i usually op for WoE, WoM and PoV. if i don’t expect heavy conditions, then i go for WoE or even two-handed mastery.

zergs and large scale battles aside, i feel area is more important than longer lasting. sure, some may argue that one extra tick you get another boon, more healing and more DPS, however, it will be rather rare (from my experiences) that enemies wills tay in your symbols long enough for the full duration. unless if you have a reliable way or work in a group to keep them stuck on ’em. and i prefer larger symbols since it does add a radius forcing your opponents to “waste” a doge to get out instead of run out. and you can effectively get more AoE this way – both offensively and defensively. just my take though : ))

i think that’s a pretty good setup actually! though i wouldn’t mind going for more power so your nice crit chance and dmg can benefit off of that more. but that acn esily be fixed with using stacking sigils (as long as you don’t mind the stacking process).

i tend to aim for 3k attack, 3k armor 16k+ health, 40% crit and 50% crit dmg for a standarized build. especially for WvW. i personally don’t feel the life steal food is that good, so if you wanted to, you could eat some food that gives vitality – lot of great choices out there.

at the same time, you could switch in beryl orbs in your trinket upgrades for extra vit there as well. and then use food that gives more precision or stackign sigils or accuracy sigil to make up for the crit chance.

also note, on your setup right now, i forget the exact CD numbers, but with two on-crit sigils on your mainhand and offhand setup, if one procs, the other won’t be able to proc until the CD is off. just to note.

any reason you’re not using the highest quality of food / nourishment buffs? : ))

as i mentioned, your stats are great already in my book and you can only improve them more ; ))

i’ll say, symbol builds for the Guard are EXTREMELY strong. was brought to my attention by a good friend here. and 30 in Zeal is actually quite often looked over by many Guards. though i do feel it can still be improved.

OP, i would say go try out all the weapons, traits, utilities and see what suits your fancy and then try to build sth a long that. that’ll give you a MUCH greater understanding of the calss. but of course, do check out videos and see what people ahve to say here for some extra inspiration. i’ve learned mainly checking out WvW or PvP videos of Guardians. : ))

as it stood, i played mainly an AH Guard with hammer and staff or GS. and now i’ve branched into all weapon types, and builds that aren’t 30 deep into Valor. and constantly changing. i will say, playing a symbol build is extremely fun. relatively mobile (depending on weapon choice) and then utilities as well. semi-roamer/bunker as well.

i’ve been recently running 0/10/30/30/0 with Greatsword and Mace+Focus. sometimes i’ll run 10/0/30/30/0 as well. and even more recently 10/30/30/0/0 as i’ve gotten used to mitigating dmg more using the Guardian skills so i can forego a little vitality and using one hand weapons. extremely durable still with a LOT of crits. having your symbols hit for 1k+, while they heal you and your mace smashing peolpe for 2k, 3k crits is awesome for meD

sorry this is all over the place. ahha but my mind is as well. perhaps i’ll come in later and write something more organized.

and animations.. hmm, seemingly i’m focused on symbols now.. ehm. my Norn male, which is not the largest size… the larger symbols don’t look that large at all. Asura Guards i feel are rpetty awesome. the symbols would look HUGE on them lol and i like the way they carry their weapons, slung across their tiny shoulders. staff #4 empower is cool (on Norn females as well, or maybe human females also), and their dodges are fun, as well as mighty blow with the hammer – i think they do a little somersault!

the OP already said he uses fire in the off-hand and is looknig for advice for his main-hand.

so OP, can i assume that you’re running MH+OH and then staff? i would suggest, lke others, to have bloodlust or perception (stat stacking) sigils on both active weapon sets. for e.g. have it in your offhand until you get full stacks, and then you switch your offhand back to the one with fire. that’s how i run usually since you don’t have to worry about switching weapons when peolpe or things die to get your stacks. though of course, can be pricey and if you can bother to do so or not.

that being said, since you’re running sigil of fire on your off hand (which i feel is a nice sigil regardless, even in WvW), since it has a cooldown, i would go for any that are straight bonuses – i.e. sigil of force or accuracy.

in most cases, sigil of force will add more overall DPS than sigil of accuracy will. however, if your play style is dependent on crits (vigorous precision, empowering might, or even just to proc sigil of fire), then go for accuracy.

OR, just go for either based on if you have enough crit chance or not.

my 0.02

assuming you have gold, you can also buy them off the TP. not exactly cheap though.

Thundar.3910:

No. If, and it’s a real big IF we can get past numbers, which honestly doesn’t look like we can. We will work on shapes, in the miraculous event we can get past shapes we will work on colors. After than we can discuss dinosaurs.

okay. : (( i’ll keep working on my numbers too then. i know a little bit about shapes, namely where 80+ of anything is classified as a blob! do i get a cookie?

cereally speaking though – i’ve mentioned this before.. often people only see what they choose to see. try putting yourselves in other people’s boots. believe it or not, there ARE times when people will still be playing, even after you’ve logged for the day. and what they see is well, clearly different from what you see.

i’ve seen JQ run zergs. i’ve seen BG run zergs. and yes, i’ve seen SoR run zergs. surprise, surprise, i’ve seen all 3 servers run way less as well. and as rare as it is, i still run into solo roamers still in T1. solo myself as well. what are the chances of that.

they all have their place in this match-up. just seemingly the zerg is more predominant as of late. but of course, it’s also more easily noticeable because it’s a large sea of red text. can you honestly tell me that you’ve NEVER seen small groups of SoR or BG or JQ players? depending on wherever you may be hailing from.

oo really nice stats.D

away from the game for a bit, but i’ll keep an eye on this.

just to add a little, if you’re in a “hurry”, SE path 3 and HotW path 1 in my experiences are the most “stress” free, as well as quickest paths. SE path 1 can be decent if everyone knows what they’re doing : ))

i used to run all 3 paths AC for quick PTV stuff but haven’t gone back since the changes. which i should probs revisit to check ’em out.

check out Silven’s thread for some thoughts and starting ground : ))

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/first

i will also urge you though to experiment and figure out what works best for YOU. if you decide on a build and like it, you can still tweak the traits, the weapons, the sigils and trinkets to your own liking. but hopefully this gives you some sense of how thigns work in sPvP.

i am relatievly new to sPvP myself.. and i find personally not using a PvE/WvW mindset to approach sPvP gearing helped a lot. of course, to a certain extent, some things still hold, but not all. : ))

yea i’ve noticed since leaderboards were out, most PUGs will leave once the score is even remotely apart. then once one leaves, another will leave.

often enough, the opposing team will always offer words of condolence. which is nice.

though as it stands, if you’re concerned with ranking, then your best bet is to find a good team. if even not a full team, at least a few that you know you work well with : ))

Thundar.3910:

Jahn.7019:

So much hostility in these threads lately.

Nah, I think we’re just trying to teach some guy to count, we may move on to shapes later, we’ll see how this goes first.

can we please do dinosaurs next? i love dinosaurs.

congrats!
apart from messing with dyes, don’t forget to go to different places using the same dye set. that in itself is amazing as well heh. have fun!!!!

@Enzo – AH builds work best with at least a full party around you / in a group setting. That being said, it’s more than viable solo as well for both PvE/WvW. depending on who you’re up against, solo WvW, you still might be better off with meditations and MF, but the beauty of many of these builds, you can easily switch back and forth from AH to MF adn change your bar. especially the 15/30/20/5 build IMO.

also, for sPvP, i feel AH works extremely well with symbol builds. : ))

all sound advice in here. i want to echo that it entirely depends on what you want to achieve. by that i mean to a certain extent, even if your focus is purely PvE for now, who’s to say you won’t ever delve into WvW, or even PvP (which is completely different from PvE/WvW though).

one of the most important things when it comes to building your Guard, or any profession for that matter i assume, is to pick out the traits you want to run with, and then compliment that with gear/jewelry/sigils/runes, etc. though of course, that’s not to say, once you set your traits, you can’t ever change them.

what Incomingray said about “don’t stop collecting gear” is too true. for my guard now, i have 7 sets of armor + runes and then different weapon sets for each of those. and even then, i’ll chagne my trait setup depending on how i feel like, which dungeon i’m about to head into, or even for boss encounters. definitely switch it up a lot in WvW depending on what i’m about to do – zerg / solo roam / to be as mobile as possible / as tanky as possible / as DPS as possible.. the list goes on.

that being said, just to add some more “solid” information in this post.. i do quite enjoy the following setup.

Knight’s – Head / Chest / Legs
Valkyrie – Shoulders / Gloves / Boots

Jewelry if i am playing “all around”, i go knight trinkets with valkyrie upgrades. if you have enough HP, go for berserker upgrades. the jewelry upgrades are spots i ALWAYS have crit dmg % stats on, i.e. zerker and valky. unless if i am going full healing, or something else specialized.

in terms of runes, soldiers is great for the extra vit / survivability. i quite enjoy Pack or full Ruby Orbs or Ogre for some DPS builds. Boon duration runes are also almost always a good go to on the Guard though. especially if you’re keen on playing shouts or if you went for a tratied symbol bomb build.

and in general, stats i like to aim for.. and then tweak according to the type of build / style / gameplay i’m looking forward to.

Attack: 3k+
Crit chance: 38-40%+
Armor: 3k+
Health: 16k+

of course, i’ll give or take here and there depending. hope this helps a little as well.

i actually come from the opposite end. i’m relatively new to tPvP, learning all the maps and how to play. i can say i am comfortable with most of them now, though probably shortcuts i still don’t know about / strategies.

and if not in a pre-made, i’ll ask or let people know what i’ll be up to or how we want to approach this but most of the time, i get nothing back either. and it is sort of a maybe 60/40 chance that we’ll lose when that happens. so i guess, more often than not to a certain degree. though i will always have fun. when your teammates leave match beacuse you’re doing poorly but do nothing to try to make a difference though.. that’s a different story in itself i guess though.

how often do you hear monkey sounds in the “real world”? O___o

CuddleStrike, you are godesend in this thread. : )))

am outta town the next two days, but me Asura is finally ready (for now)! i’ll hit you up right before reset if you’re on. woot.

so i guess what we’re asking for is an SAB style of combat? and without new skills unlokcing, mind youD

pointy sticks for everyone!!!! poke away, my valiant soldiers. poke away.

i used to get owned by confusion all the time. so i read up about it. asked my mesmer friends about it. now i don’t die AS often. but i’ve still much to learn.

my personal threshold for specifically investing into Healing Power, whether it be cleric’s, magi’s or what else, is to be at least, if not darn close to 1k healing power. if not, i’d say go for other stats.

again, that’s me personally, but i feel i need to draw the line somewhere for the trade-offs.

i want to say AH builds greatly benefit from having high toughness. so if you do invest in healing power from magi’s to upkeep crit rating, do make sure to find your toughness somewhere else though!

aaww got infracted for saying something positive. i guess it was due to the manner it was said. guess context doesn’t matter, eh? ; PPP

gonna be outta town for biznaz end of this week so won’t be able to see this match play out until the end. here’s to glory!!!!

i don’t mind it at all. it’s quite funD

often goign after a group of enemies, especially when they start to legit retreat and you’re cleaning them off, i leave the bags 1) to focus ont he running invaders and 2) so i can back track and pick them up! like followign the yellow brick roadD

though in more cases than one, i did that only to be chased by another servers group lol. sad times XDDDD

i love the hamemrs and while i am a fan of many of them actually (i guess in a sense, i collect skins..), most of them look like great axes instead beacuse they are so thin. or tiny so they almost look like shortened staves.

glad to hear there is more work being put into various weapons skins!D hammers included!

i can confirm that you need a “of rage” weapon to craft the corrupted weapons. early on when i wanted to craft the hammer, i bought a shaman’s etched on the TP without realizing this and got one “of _” and couldn’t craft it.

though if that will affect the ability to craft or the outcome of the end result.

Zaxares.5419:

Dingle.2743:

@Zebulous: There’s a spot in the arena that his lick doesn’t reach. Find it. It’s a little higher than everything else you can stand on.

Apparently you can also stand right underneath his chin, although I haven’t tested this.

can confirm this. is what i usually do if he opens with this since i can’t get a gem out of the ammy. you take zero dmg. : )) though unsure how big a margin of error you get. once i stepped too far in and got poisoned by the water.

as of now.. i’d say save ’em. who knows how tough will the newer levels be : )) and i guess would be good to have just in case.

hmm from my experiences, unless if this was changed, whatever sigil you had on that you get a stack from first will keep stacking and no other stacking sigil can overwrite it, unless if you lose all stacks and start restackign with the new sigil.

also, you can achieve full 25 stacks even if it’s just one sigil on your offhand. and this next point, i’m unsure of since haven’t tested myself, but read that if you have it on both mainhand and offhand, it’ll stack twice as fast. i.e. 2 stacks per kill.

i’ve used a similar gear setup but different trait setup. i was just wondering if any other Guards use the melandru runes in PvP! good to know.

though i actually find rangers harder to deal with in terms of conditions. though any 2 super condition heavy professions / builds = no fun. even with melandru and condi removal.

yea i figured a bunker build would be much more effective. but still! lol. i guess i don’t like losign 1v1. ://// i have much to learn. but that’s good to know. i know the skills of most classes, except the ranger. this will have me learn moer about them too. didn’t know abut the fire field so that’s one thing i’ll keep in mind. this was a good ranger as well. will have to look into interrupting his heals too (and this goes for all classes!)

thanks for the tips again. i think this time i was so surprised at the dmg i was taking, i didn’t put enough pressure on him and just couldn’t last as long. : ((

and ahh, right re: focus 4. i always forget about the bounce. i usually use it close up as well so that’s good.

realistically, more about the player than class that is important. but of course, that’s not the point of class tiers.

the other day, i faced a necro who literally just stood on point. didn’t move AT all and would barely lose any health. any health lost would be regained. extremely tanky and by doing so, bought time for his teams or distracted more than 1 or 2 players while the rest of his team could go cap other stuff. very awesome.

i do see it as in issue. but sometimes i want to get a quick game in. afterall, games are for fun right? as competitive as they are. or i might not be able to be on with the usuals i tPvP with in the past. or they’re not all onlnie beacuse of IRL stuff.

then i solo join. and i don’t take it as far as seeing how it affects rank, etc. if we get pit against a pre-made. then oops. but we still play our best. in pugs, have beaten pres before. and have been walked all over by pres as well of course. it happens.

when i DO have the time and i know i’ll get to be sitting there playing for a while, then i’ll try to premake. or keep adding peolpe that we played together well in solo joins.

faced one of these rangers last night i believe. very sustained healing, graet point holding, defintiely bunker and just slowly chipped away at my life. i was playing Guard, though not a bunker. any tips on facing them next time?

i want to saaay it depends on the team make up and their strategy. both yours and your opponents. now, note i am relatively new to PvP and been playing khylo.. i’ve been in situations where we didn’t man a treb and won. others where we had it and it worked out. also others where we could completely ignore enemy treb. or times when we were fighting uphill until we took out their treb, then it was ez mode after.

though last night, had a few 2v5 or 3v5’s and was no fun at all. XDDD

i personally think the Virtues line is great, but i’ve never used the VoJ traits before. i’ve always wanted to mess around with them though. so let me know how it goes in that case. though i want to say you’ll want to be activating VoJ a lot since you get an AoE blind on it with 5 in radiance, and that it refreshes on kill with 15 in radiance. so taking supreme jsutice might not be exactly worth it. just my take though.

AH is not necessary but just going 30 down valor is so strong since you get 300 toughness, as well as 30% crit damage. especially with high crit chance, you’ll want to augment that with at least equal, if not more crit damage %.

re: Defender’s Flame though, by shield, do you mean the offhand? the shield actually doesn’t have any blocks on it afaik. with focus #5 you get 3 blocks, the mace #3 gives you one block. and Shelter, our heal, i personalyl think is one of the best heals in the game for the Guard. sure it heals less, but for those 2 seconds all those attacks blocked count as blocks as well so you’ll get any on-block procs from that as well.

i usually have defender’s flame when i want a bit more passive dmg, but i wouldn’t focus around it. retributive armor is always nice to ahve to boost your crit chance. if you feel it’s high enough, then take the others. i feel meditation mastery is ebst though if you’re running 2 meditations.

[edit: fixed some stuff]

hmm, any quick tips to facing trap rangers? i was trying out the meditation builds last night and i do pretty decent. such a great build. and i can deal with eles, even mesmers, but this ONE ranger just melted my face with conditions. :// i had purity, smite condition and contemplation but he just stacked them back on me just as easily.. anything i can do better against them?

also, general Guardian question, does GS #4 + GS#2 or 5 combo cleanse conditiosn from myself? as well as focus #4?

go to “Heart of the Mists” i.e. s/tPvP land and check your gear. you’ll have been outfitted with a default set of armor, and i guess in this case, all slotted with Rune of the Guardian. it’s a “bug” that’s been around for a while now and it counts double (i.e. both your PvP and PvE gear)

the easiest way to “fix” this would be go into HotM, and switch in runes that you’d never use in PvE on your PvP gear (assuming you won’t play PvP either. if you do, just remmber to switch ’em back lol).

no expert here yet, but i want to say there may be a ton of recipes not yet “discovered” for PvP yet. especially with the various rank tokens, we may see some more forges when people get high enough in ranks perhaps.?