Guild Wars 2

hithlain – i sure do apprecaite your love for the Guardian class! am sure many of us appreciate it as well. glad you’re having so much fun with!!

i went with Blind Exposure for Radiance 10, since that mildly synergizes with Virtue of Justice (F1) and since it recharges so fast. plus they recently buffed it, as well as if you like using the swords.

i want to say 2H mastery is nice to have, but by no means necessary for this build to work. and one of the reasons like you pointed out. even with the hammer, i felt it wasn’t as necessary in WvW as i felt it was in PvE. though that might just be my personal playstyle. as in WvW/PvP, i mix up #4, #5 and #3 a lot more as well so i’m not always counting on a #2 everytime i do a chain plus dodge.

i personally feel the symbols in the Honor line are extremely strong so I had a lot of fun with those early on. : )))

in regards to Valor, retributive armor is a strong contender as it just adds more precision and with this build and set up with Knight’s gear, your toughness is high so you benefit quite a bit from that trait.

TheDevilWithinU.7092:

Sunspots.9861:

TheDevilWithinU.7092:

FXLEACH.9436:

;_;777777777777

This error.. I get it all the time yet I cannot find a fix ;w;

Do you have aoe circles set to show? I used to crash alot till I turned this back on.

I do… I may have to try that out and see if it helps.

going to have to give this a shot too. too many times right before a wall or gate comes down, i get this. :///

that being said, just got a new rig! puts laptop aside for now
can’t wait to test it out, especially in WvW.

if you are defeated, you could also map chat and ask if anyone’s around or near by
if you’re running twds someone to revive them you can be like, the one defeated near the windmill, i’m coming for yoooooooooooooou!

if i see someone, i usually ask if they need help reviving. sure it seems sily, but there’s always the off chance they were AFk, and if people keep reviving them, and they keep getting killed, their repair bill racks up. so i do wait around, and if no answer, i then carry on.

and many times people do seem to waypoint during the reviving process, it’s just good timing. more often than not, one could be in the world map after having been defeated, and looking which WP to go to, or for whatever reason have been in the world map, i.e. not being able to see someone coming towards them. then the good timing comes in the form of RIGHT as you click to WP, the big yellow words flash for a split second on the screen “A NOBLE SOUL IS HEA….” dangit! XDD has happened to me more than a handful of times. oops. so if i am on the same map, just a diff WP, i’ll map chat a thank you. if i’m on a different map. then i apologize in advance. : ((

i can’t speak for warriors too much but i do enjoy the hammer on the Guardian immensely. apart from what Oozo mentioned, the straight line immobilize is good for chasing fleeing enemies. #4 is just pure fun and i’ve many a time saved allies from getting stomped by knocking someone away. #5 is pretty useful too for area denial, holding a chokepoint, ensuring you can revie an ally or get a stomp as well. call me evil, but i love watching enemies topple over and over again using #5 with #4, etc etc.

the hammer is a lot of fun with the Guardian’s utility Judge’s Intervention as well.

@all new-comers – welcome and glad you made your way here and decided to leave a mark! : ))) you’ll find tons of helpful and awesome people from various servers. hopefully you’ll all be able to find small groups to run around with, if not, group with folk in your region and can do dungeons together. if not, just chat up a storm.

apologies to all! as i’ve been more focused on WvW as of late when i am on. but feel free to add me as a friend (main Guardian – Akaimon), send me whispers if you have any questions regarding anything. i’m on Sanctum of Rall as well so if you ever want to run WvW, do come come come join!!

also always interested in doing dungeons and particularly, need to finish story modes for CoF, CoE, HotW and then just set foot in Arah in general. lol.

: ))) again, just in case it’s missed, do check out the followign website for more info and hiphappenings!

http://operationunion.enjin.com/

good to know! i’ve long since used the scepter + combo and was “caught” being stuck using it while attacking a tower and a zerg showed up. then i remembered how much fun the scepter was, heh. the sword is really awesome too but also haven’t used it in a while since i’ve been more focused on 2hers and never really specced out fully for 1h weapons. so this would be a fun alternative. and i can see the passive dmg you’d be doing to others 1vX even if you’ve been focusing on one target. the scepter and sword and they’re fast / multi-hitting does work well with VoJ passive.

ahh okay gotcha. excited for you : )) in regards to gear, as mentioned, i ran full knight’s everything and the build worked wonders for me. if you wanted a bit more survivability, some opt with a mix of valkyrie jewelry, or even go as far as getting soldier’s chest / pants for starters. though i prefer not to miss out on crit chance %. on the other hand, if you want a bit more dmg, some like to throw in a mix of berserker’s gear as well (either actual armour or jewelry).

i personally felt Knight’s gear and jewelry held up pretty well and didn’t feel the need for extra vit from gear. i did use soldier runes x6 for the added benefit of some tough/vit and more condition removal though.

and do remember to utilize your dodges well! the heal from that with just the +300 healing from the traits add a lot already. and have fun!!

Voltron.1043:

Dreymar, The Fallen Guardian. He is not good guy to meet. Armor set- my own project. T3 can kiss its kitten.

Weapons on pic: Stygian Blade and The Fate of Menzies (S/T)

absolutely love this.
great matchup on the armour choices and dyejob!

@Bros –D i know what ya mean. as it stands, cleric’s is only attained through crafting (or TP-ing) at the moment. earlier in the thread some people have mentioned they run PVT with cleric’s trinkets and weps iirc, and was working for them. i’m actually running cleric’s x2, magi’s x2 (which is kind of waste of a stat since your prec is so low, though i get added vit) which i’m using cause i got ‘em from dungeons, and then soldier’s x2. i’m slowly gonna phase out the magi’s set when i can, but at least i have the needed healing power.

take your time though and don’t rush. what i’m running now may not be max healing power, but i alreayd see the added benefits of heavily investing in it. good luck!

one thing though i will say, usually am a big fan of the staff, but not so much for this build.

@Sharez – it’s entirely up to how you want to play. i’ve played the AH build both with and without the Empowering Might traits (even when 30 in honor) and i don’t feel it’s build breaking. some may argue otherwise, but i’ve never felt it was a “must-have”. certainly nice to have though. if you’re sticking with the hammer, i personally like having two-handed mastery, but again, it’s not required. so you can try switching that out for empowering might and see how it plays for you.

if you’re looking to try out a completely different trait setup, i used to run 0/15/30/20/5 and then i switched to 0/5/30/30/5 and loved it. then i did a 0/0/30/30/10 and loved it even more. i’ve also tried 10/0/30/30/0 and 0/10/30/30/0 annd they all work well. that’s the thing, these aren’t even the only options for an AH build as wel. so fiddle around with it and see what suits you best! : ))) i personally really enjoy longer lasting symbols and / or larger symbols. both very powerful in that trait line as well.

@WRod – when i first started running the AH build, i was full Knight’s gear and trinkets and never felt the need for more healing power. i think you could go for it if you don’t lose out on crit too much. and it can be a decent way to add some vit to your build using the healing/pre/vit stats. before any of that though, what trinkets are you using now?

in terms of runes – use whatever you want to focus more on. you can go with monk x3 and water x3 for more healing and 30% boon duration. or you could build for more suvivability and the ever-so-popular soldiers x6 for condition removal on shouts as well. and there are many other options.

i’d say soldier as well. even with two shouts, it’s pretty effective. and you get added vit and tough.

not the biggest fan of div runes (and not cause of cost). i personally feel that “balance” is important in this game, though not being necessary… but the runes is where you really get to customize and push a certain build in any given direction, and div just takes that all away.

may i ask why you don’t want to use gw2lfg? sure it’s a 3rd-party site, but even ANet staff have specifically mentioned that people can look into that for now as they realize how great a tool it is (that is, if you’re worried that using it could result in repercussions…)

that being said, join a guild, try to rally people on here, or on reddit or any other sources and good luck! i’ve yet to do Arah story as well (though putting that on the back burner for now)

using the 1x recipe, you’re just allowing that non-guaranteed average ~30% chance have more of a chance to settle in. for my clovers (okay, i accidentally got 81 cause i didn’t have all my clovers in my inv at that time) it took 236 shards / tries. so that gave me about a 34% chance. i would go at times a streak of no clovers, and then later on, a steak of only clovers. so it really is all chance.

with the 10x recipe, it may end up being a similar “ratio” but you’re risking more for higher rewards is all. and that being said, to get as close to that ~30%, it’s best to do it all in one go.

keep ‘em coming, SoR! when i went to bed last night, we’d just lost Garrison on SoR BL. and now waking up to this, it’s pretty crazy. this match up so far makes me want to never go to work and just stay at home and play all day. lol.

kudos to all. with the skirmishes i’ve had with SBI and TC, really feeling like i’m getting to hone my skills on an individual level, and being more in touch with the commanders and map overall, i’m getting to see how some small coordination can put some really good players together.

/salute

hmm haven’t run AC in a while, at leas tnot since last patch. but i did ’em throughout wintersday. is this new? there are stairs…? O__________o

regardless, i think the graveling bosses are kind fun, save path 2. that one’s just boring. though i don’t mind it either. i like the fights that keep you mobile and having to be on the lookout and reading tells from the boss. if not, you really could wipe if you take a couple wrong steps. but i guess that’s besides the point…

@Broskadamus – i can’t speak to how efficiently the build plays out with hammer and mace combo, but i am loving the way it works so far. with either energy sigils or +endurance food, it works wonders and though less mobile, the pace is quite fun still. and i just feel even more survivable with this weapon set, and the hammer hits very hard as well. though, i wish i had a more readily available avenue for retaliation (the hammer still depends on the auto chain to hit and against very mobile enemies, it can get rough). but YES, love the shield for the exact reasons you’ve mentioned. i’ve also had the chance to use it so help allies secure a stomp when a mini-zerg comes rushing in to either interupt of quick res.

yea, agreed. the virtues line is very strong imo and i’m having a ton of fun.

hey Bash great write up here! and super glad you found a build that plays up the burning dmg that Guardians are capable of. i can see this being very strong in 1v1 as well as when in a group as you can help pick out stragglers or those on low health easily. however, i did have one and that’s how this build holds up in 1vN situations? i imagine just single one out again as well, but i guess i’ve gotten used to cleaves and PBAoEs with the other Guardian weapons. sounds very promising though.

here’s a bit of a WvW perspective. i tried PVT / Soldier’s gear for a while using an AH build, and i felt, i won’t say less survivable, but definitely less effective overall. so i guess in other words, i didn’t feel i was able to hold my own more. the added vit was nice, but losing crit and fighting power i didn’t enjoy so much. and AH still relies on crits a lot – least the way i traited and specced.

though if you really want, you can try Knight’s + Soldier’s chest and pants for the added vitality. many have said that’s a good starting place, but i still prefer the crit chance over vit any day. that might just be me though.

Judas.5432:

akamon.2769:

and. who would ever attack a baby quaggan roaming the lands of the Mists? i’m looking at you SBI! >:DDD

That quaggan was a spy and was selling our secrets. Don’t blame us, blame the heartless sunova who recruited the poor little thing :-P

O____o we may be speaking of different quaggan then. but.. CURSE THAT HEARTLESS MAN!

need. to. get. off. work. now. so i can play.

i can hopefully shed a little light – i actually use hammer + mace/shield with this build. all weapons cleric’s. and given i’m still practicing and improving on this build, i feel actually way more survivable than any AH build i’ve played. in certain 1v1 or 1v2 situations, the mace does add some needed healing at times, and it by no means does it not deal dmg. surely, not as hard as the sword could be, but it provides good utility. i love mace #3 as well block + AoE? the shield i chose for the knockback on 5. very useful in WvW i feel. but i imagine the mace + focus combo would be extremely tanky as well.

i’ll let Chris answer the questions from his POV as well of course. though one thing, i definitely am not as mobile as using both GS and sword. though i get by and enjoy the “tanky” playstyle of the hammer and mace.

@Chris – i like the idea of your solo PvE vid, but like you mentioned, you can’t stop others from joining. i’ve seen a few others post vids of soloing dungeon bosses! and that’s one way to ensure no one “interupts” your fights. perhaps you could have a group bring you up to certain bosses, they leave, then try to take them down. 1v1. could be interesting and fun if you chose the right bosses!

been having a blast so far!!! a bit late, but welcome again, SBI!

being part of the Bay holding was one of the most fun i’ve had in a while. particular big thanks to CDSD

SBI and TC, outside SBI Bay, though a few short battles for me here and there, i’ve already learned a lot from you guys. keep bringing it!

and. who would ever attack a baby quaggan roaming the lands of the Mists? i’m looking at you SBI! >:DDD

have seen you vids and they’re great. am a Guard on SoR and this is the only dungeon i haven’t set foot in yet. heh.

will add you in-game when i get on next! hope to be able to play with ya.
only thing is, i am in Hong Kong (GMT+8) so when i do play, it’s usually gonna be EST mornings. do your daily runs include the weekend as well? as seeing that’s the only time i’ll be able to catch you.

cheers for this.

definitely possible with 2 people. and i think it’s almost easier with less people.
earlier on, the first couple times i unlocked the dungeon, there were way too any people and everyone would just chase wherever he showed up. i even map chatted people telling a few to stay on certain platforms (the ones he showed up on) and no one would listen. :/// until only a few did. and personally thanked them for helping out.

now it’s the opposite. no one ever doing this pre-event.

considering all points above, i guess it depends on how you’re playing. if you’re running solo, SY could be a clear choice. though in a group setting, HTL can make a huge difference. one could also argue the benefits of stripping your allies of conditions using SY in a group setting.

all up to you. and i’m actually used to running with both. :pp

@Bash – i’ve been trying to come up with a build that is focused on burns as wel and too, doesn’t seem very viable. so sort of been trying to tweak it so that it hits hard still, and when burns do proc, it’s an added bonus, supplmentaing my normal attacks.

quick ques – so you’re saying the passive VoJ effect (every 5th hit causes burning) doesn’t benefit from + condition duration or dmg?

@BG – been getting real busy IRL… but gonna do my darned best to get on Friday night to ensure i send you guys off well. ; )) well deserved and continue standing tall.

looking forward to the days our paths cross again – one way or another.

just remember that for certain conditions the dmg is done per tick, per second. so when you do decide to add +condition duration, take not of the overall duration and if it infact adds room for another tick, and in turn, extra DPS.

i feel duration is usually more useful for things like chill or poisin (since it makes healing less effective), etc.

@Chris – commences slow clap lol that was pretty awesome. i need to go hide in the corner and do my homework now. very nice!! haha a thread where people post vids of themselves in action and people having to guess every detail of their build ought to be started.

@KrisHQ – ha, definitely! i find myself enjoying both, but i definitely get to test my skills as a player more so when roaming in smaller groups. looking fwd to part 2, and etc etc

what armor sets are you wearing? i can’t tell from straight numbers (though they look fine to me as well) but rather the combination of gear. many Guards will say 3k armor is a baseline, but i’d say give and take a few depending on your playstyle.

also, as KensaiZen mentioned, what runes do you have equipped?

lastly, could you elaborate on what you mean by dying to the simplest of things?

in terms of weapons, hammer IS a very good choice. especially with altruistic healing. although, the GS will work and you do have an extra AoE blind as well. but do check out the hammer and see if you like it. if you don’t feel it necessary, you could even run with GS + Hammer. i did that for a while and it’s really fun (then i’d obviously pick up 2handed mastery as well. it’s not necessary though, that’s just me.)

i love this thread. knights had always fasincated me as a kid. now i’m going to go read up on some history and facts. and when i know more, i’ll come back to check progress and hopefully be able to offer more.

:OO very nice. love watching your vids Amins. heh, a lot to take away from for me as a Guard. keep ’em coming!

i’ve been “theorycrafting” in my head as well for a build that utilizes burns and extra dmg, etc. if you wanna go for more duration, you can always mix and match with Rune of the Flame Legion, Balthazar (iirc), Forge as well as Baelfire. although the 6pc bonuses of the Flame Legion are nice too for the extra 5%.

@Obtena – do you feel you’re lackign in toughness if you’re using all pow/vit/CD gear?

welcome MissMonster! you’ll find plenty of friendly and awesome folks on GH. : ))) they’ll be sure to help you out. also, make sure you check out the website linked in Helequin’s signature!

gw2 is really fun even solo as i do that quite often, but the experience completely changes when you have a group to do it with. let alone a consistent (and crazy fun) group! : ))

you can also look at mixing and matching of runes. certain runes (e.g. “Rune X”) will go for a LOT. so when if you’re doing say a “Rune A” x2 + “Rune B” x2 + “Rune C” x2 mix, and “Rune B” has the same level 2 (2/6 runes) stats as “Rune X”, the really expensive ones, you can opt for “Rune B” , since you’re not going for a full set.

so do some research look into your build and armour and weapons and try to find the sweet spot. ; ))) i’ve been having a ton of fun with different runes and experimenting. slowly acquiring them when i come up with something new.

have you really been playing with a trackpad???

i hope ANet sees this as well and look into fixing some of these, what i consider, to be game-hindering bugs. perhaps they’re hard to “fix”, but they’ve been around since day one afaik.

SoR was open over the weekend. and i’ve seen it open at least a week before that as well. at least i semi-assume it’s not bugged on our server. i don’t do it enough to guarantee that though.

i really like a lot of these ideas. it kind of matches the whole, ever changing event and world. us as players are consatntly improving, changing builds and traits… the same could be applied to mobs no? or bosses and vets at least. as time goes on, surely after getting their butt handed to them by random pugs of asura, charr, humans teaming up.. they’d get tired of it. and learn new moves? get stronger? so to seek out revenge on those that always thwarted their plans to take over so-and-so village! so with each big patch perhaps, programming, time, complications permitting, if new fighting styles could be added to bosses, new moves, new mechanisms… it’d make fight more interesting too : ))) so even veterans of the player base, could experience something new and more challenging and have to “re-learn” so to speak. and what’s more valuable than truly being in a world that’s always changing and learning!D

finally got a chance to watch it and had a ton of fun. really dynamic playing style! you do really well staying on your targets! that one fight in the camp where iirc, that char kept getting up several times with the help of others, you stayed on him like no other and eventually earning your stake.

didn’t know you could spam virtues while renewed focus already used as well! that adds a lot. at times i’d be more using it as an anti-burst as well, but by the time i see it coming and react, i scramble to make sure i hit my virtues to “max” the use of it, lol. so this is good to know.

your vid did for me exactly as you intended it to be. i watched it during lunch on my phone and thoroughly enjoyed it lol. now i want to go home and play!

you have a point in it being a long CD, while the symbol from hammer chain #1 is conditional in pulling off 3 hits on a mob to drop a symbol. whereas the other two 2h weps you can drop on command. i guess ANet had planned to only have one symbol on each of the two-handed weapons.

i wouldn’t mind it if it wasn’t a symbol or didn’t do dmg, but rather, inflicted some sort of condition like you mentioned. OR if they do use stability, dodgeroll out of it, then they receive dmg, or get dazed or something.

heh, bring it on, SBI! i know both TC and SoR will welcome ya with open arms, steel in our grips of course, war paint on our faces. ; )) we’ll make sure you guys won’t get that much of a “break” here in T2.

looking forward to seeing some new faces, making new friends and new enemies.

why not start a thread as a call to arms instead!! am sure you’ll find more on your server, that need these for map completion. you could spend time learning WvW a bit, and at least give it a chance. i’m not one for PvP, nor even one for MMO’s, but i love this game. both PvE and WvW aspects (i’ll admit, i haven’t ventured into sPvP yet).

sure, which server you are and ranking may make a difference, but anything can happen in this game. i think it was a nice touch to add to have people who want 100% explore most parts of the game can offer.

mm just thinking out loud now…

if i understand correctly, these all do dmg per tick, per second. so when looking at increasing your duration, try to do a calculation to see if the stats used will be worth it since gw2 “rounds down” the dmg done based on ticks. for e.g. you have a bleed for 5s. and increasing duration by 10% brings you to 5.5s, the condition will last for 5.5s but will only tick for dmg for 5s.

the only thing i can think of is for poison, you might want to increase duration depending, since poison also affects the target’s healing abilities as well.

misc thoughts… take into account your targets ability to cleanse conditions? since many classes are able to do so, mayb stacking condition dmg may be better? as duration might not help if they can cleanse ‘em as soon as you put ’em on. as well as looking into foods like rare veggie pizza, that help both duration and dmg if you’re having a hard time choosing which to focus on.

hope this helps, if even a little.
[edited: took out extra info :pp]

i guess it has more limited uses in PvE. or rather, it shines a lot more in PvP areas. a similar discussion has been thrown around before. a few improvements:

• make it an instant cast while rooted; or
• allow the Guard to be able to cast while moving with a similar cast-time

making it a symbol would be extremely powerful i feel. especially since we have one on the hammer already, which can happen quite often.

the RoW does act as a lightfield (not on tooltip), so sometimes if i want to give AoE retal and don’t have time for hammer 1 chain or want to save my other utilities, you can drop, and then #2 to combo retail, then go into chain 1 or what not with retal up already.

i think foes definitely shouldn’t be able to walk / jump / dodge through it without stability. though again in PvE, not as applicable.

can be fun using it to trip enemies up. say for eg. you aggro them at range, they run towards you drop RoW, they run into it. move behind them and then banish them into the ring again. it’s just fun to do. and a little game i liek to play sometimes is to take mobs down without losing any health. so little “tricks” like these, if you will, help with that as you’re able to keep mobs off their feet, i.e. unable to attack you.

have heard that both blue and white work, since neither of those quality can be actually “bound”. the end-result will still say soulbound, but is in fact account bound. i’ve only heard this from others though. i did it with a white item (and since i assume whites will be cheaper to obtain anyways…), and it came out account-bound.

but go white anyways.

i guess in that sense, any variation of an Altruistic Healing build could suffice and excel. you would then be always holding the front line, not backing down. not turning your back on your enemies. picking up your comrades with selfless daring dodge heals as well as giving out boons to support. the whole battle cry (shouts) thing seems to work.

though i understand you want to use GS and sword.. i almost feel hammer and mace + shield would work better. loads of protection, AoE might from combos, more control and area of denials (to better protect your people), and some names to go along with your whole theme – mace: true, pure, then faithful strike to heal, symbol of faith, protector’s strike, hammer: symbol of protection, banish (those that are unjust).. etc etc

then with traits, particularly the Honor line – you can pick up empowering might, writ of persistence, exaltation, the merciful depending on situation and how far down the line you want to go., pure of voice or battle presence may work as well, though both are still minorly bugged. (i run a 0/0/30/30/10 when playing AH).

in the valor line in addition to AH, strength in numbers..

though if you decide to go deep in the virtues line (for e.g. 0/0/30/20/20) – you get boon duration and faster virtue recharges, which means you support protect and inspire those around you more, inspired virtues (5pts) is great either way for an AH build, you can also pick up absolute resolution or indominable courage as master major traits.
just a few thoughts.

@brogarn – haha, i completely know where you’re coming from. i’m consatntly tinkiering with my gear, build, weapons, traits… add on food, runes, sigils.. it never ends! i almost want to roll 4 more guardian alts so i can play everything i come up with lol

HP/tough/prec would be ridiculous :OOO i have one full knight’s with soldiers, running AH. and then i have a cleric/magi mix set, healing / boon duration runes. but my crit chance % is virtually non-existent. so both very durable, i survive well enough just very different playing styles. i have fun with both. given i haven’t tried messing around TOO Much, it seems hard to find some middle ground with these in mind (high cirt and high healing).

hmm one thing you could do is maybe try to get a magi weapon? which is HP/vit/prec – so you’d be giving up some power, maintain crit chance, and gain some healing power so you can use it according to the situation? so the tradeoff would be is the healing gained from that HP enough to offset the loss in dps? though i’m assuming you’ll be playing slightly, if ever so, more defensive with that weapon set.

@Kainazzo – it’s meant to be that way : )) Brutaly’s only laid out the basics of the build, but allowing us, the users, to pick and choose how we want to build the major traits specifically – depending on runes, gear, weapons and skills we choose to use.

Blackgate – congratulations! I know many of you will be missed on SoR. with the many weeks we were matched up against one another, i can easily say most of the best fights i’ve had, win or lose, were against you lot. and i’ve had the opportunity to further hone my skills and expand the areas of enjoyment of this game.

all the best in T1 and will be rooting for you guys. stay strong! stay Beastly. /salute /bow

kind of saddens me that these events have been bugged for so long. i guess they’d be hard to replicate or some other underlying issue that causes them to be “left untouched” since day one. and something so crucial to not just getting legendaries, but regular gameplay.

that being said, for the past couple days, a group of us have been attempting the event. we did the north and south ones. but i feel the north one was most consistent and reliable. i’ve had the south ones the team would just disappear. :///

the two starting events (submarines and retaking brassclaw) is easily doable with just 1 person (and we felt more effective). and then once brassclaw WP is opened up, bring your team over and start the escorts : ))

hope they fix these soon, but in the meantime, try the northern one and good luck!

hey Cerbeius! how are you liking the Guardian so far? mine’s my main and have no desire to play anything else for now. in terms of leveling, i’ll talk a bit about some traits below, but one ting i would have done differently, is to really experiment more with all weapon sets. i’m rediscovering various combos as of late and having so much fun. that being said, experiment a lot, use all utility skills as well!

Traits i felt really started to making a difference in my gameplay and sort of makes leveling “easier” is to invest 5 in virtues as early as you can, and then next work on getting 15 into radiance.

so the Guardian’s profession skills are the virtues, F1-3 by default keybinding. with 5 in virtues, when you activate virtues, you get might for F1, regen for F2 and protection for F3 in addition to their default actions. so added utility. and with 15 in radian, your F1 will be refreshed everytime a mob is killed (you don’t need ot land the killing blow, but “tag” the mob enough so that you get credit for that kill). and in PvE, while leveling, this pretty much means you can spam F1 in many situations. and looking at the minor adept trait in radiance, 5 pts gets your blind nearby foes when you acvitate F1.

so with this set up, each time you use F1, you blind foes, have yourself and allies next attack set them ablaze, and you get might. so you mitigate dmg, while dealing more. i used this pretty much everytime it was up!

after that, you can experiment with other traits. lot of Guardians play Altrustic Healing – grandmaster trait down the valor line. where each time you place a boon on someone (self-included) you heal a little. though many others recently i’ve seen are doing different things. which is nice as well. when built right, it can be very strong. you can take a look at the stickied Hammer + AH thread here for a starting point (long read!)

if you enjoy two hand weapons, and in particular the hammer, the honor line provides a lot of synergy.

if you enjoy your virtues and like using boons, you can experiment down the virtues line.

to be honest, i never really invested in the zeal (power) line, but there might be something there for you as well. : ))

again, all in all, learn the class well, experiment, know the power of your virtues and recognize all the dmg mitigation skills you have, boons at your disposal and how you can outheal / outlast many attacks. : ))