Guild Wars 2

i guess like many have said, depends why and what makes a “bad” group. if it’s because of no synergy, then tough luck. but usually we’ll find a way to tough it out. one instance a player left after we FINALLY finished one path and said things weren’t working. we thanked him for at least sticking through to the end.

if it’s because they’re new? then i’d rather help teach them what i know. and learn from those who know more and better than i do. for each time they do the same path with a new group, that’s 1 teaching another 4. and those 4 teaching another 4. eventually, in an ideal world, all PUG groups will be more than competant at all paths.

i’d say the main thing is just to communicate. figure out who’s done it before and who hasn’t or if they’re unfamiliar. it might take time to ask a question and have people respond, but in the end, it CAn save a LOT more time compared to if you left everything unspoken.

it also helps to decide to run or fight mobs, certain bosses, methods, strategies, etc.

this way, at least you know what to expect from your group. and you can adjust accordingly if you need to.

though there will be times where it does take a bit of luck as well. but usually you can tell how well a PUG will perform at the first “real” encounter, etc. and just allow yourself more time to help those who need it. and learn from those who know more than you.

i’ve done PUGs that do certain paths better and more smooth than anything else.

same here. after doing AC story very first time. i had JUST hit 80. and was still in all greens and stats were all over the place. that left a bad taste in my mouth and never wanted to run AC again.

fast forward. 80, more experience, know what builds work for me, how my skills work with my traits, full exotics, know a good group and we work well together… most dungeons are pretty darn fun, and a breeze for some. save Arah, but mainly because i haven’t even set foot in due to bugged gates.

that being said, started to “farm” dungeons for tokens and AC with most pugs we do more than fine. : )) hang in there! and melee is definitely more than viable, apart from certain specific situations i guess.

sadly, that is the case now.

@OP, i’ve only ever done AC and CM story. i don’t know them well (for obvious reasons) but willing to run ‘em again with ya. LF2M now ; )) though timezone permitting as i am GMT+8, in Hong Kong. usually on the weekends you’ll find me on all day.

and going forward, if you’re looking to do any of the other story modes as well, i need them as well ; ))

hey Loki haha still ahven’t caught you in-game or available to do CoE together. TZ differences probs. hope to be able to play with you soon!

and anyone else as well! still looking to run this dungeon for gear, and will be willing to run even after most likely. i actually enjoy this dungeon quite a bit : ))

i’d imagine many patches would incur more resources, time and costs as well?

patiently waiting for the day when ANet eventually fixes all bugs, especially those that have been present since day one. those are hinder progress or stop events. this goes for ALL DE’s, skillpoints, NPCs bugging out, dungeons and or temple events. and now heavily affecting tPvP even.

i hate to plea.. or whine.. whatever you call it.. but at this rate, more bugs are going to be introduced you fixing things. i kno wit’s only been.. 3 months and a bit, but this seems rather consistent and that with each pathc, MORE bugs get introduced than the last patch. certain bugs / errors have been around since day 1 as well and doesn’t seem to have been touched at all. at least, no notification was given.

i still have faith in you guys! and looking forward to when these bugs do get fixed. and that you don’t have people believing that you’ll only fix stuff that stop players from “exploiting” or “farming gold/loot fast” and look at problems that are essential to a players genuine gaming experience as well. so far it seems exploits are too quick to be fixed, which is good. but hopefully not at the expense of other long standing bugs.

for those of you who are familiar, how do so many new bugs get introduced when they patch things or try to fix other problems? i understand it’s not one team working on everything, and certain items would be easier to fix than others, thus not necessarily a priority issue.. but at the same time, i assume these things would get tested, like the OP mentioned. or is it different for live updates or a game that is ever-changing?

and perhaps, when so many bugs have been around since day one, that do hinder progress or affect gameplay, i would too appreciate if those bugs were fixed before too much new content is introduced. because track record, albeit only a couple months old, is that with new content, more new bugs will be introduced. and without the old bugs being fixed, they pile up. it’s like if you don’t take out the adds that keep spawning in say for e.g. a certain fractal, you’ll eventually get overrun.

that being said, i do love new content! and appreciate that you guys are trying to do something new with introducing major stuff every month.. but perhaps do enough testing to ensure that not too many new bugs, or bugs that can’t be easily fixed or even identified are introduced with new goodies.

once you get used to it, you’ll start doing it by leaps of faith. lol.
figuretively and literally (as a Guardian).

the scepter is the only “true” ranged option we get as Guardians – though most won’t really count it as ranged. can it be effective? sure. does it get certain objectives done? sure. so we’re not completely useless. it’s not bad while defending/attacking walls. #2 can do pretty decent dmg. #3 good for chasing / stopping enemies.

staff i wouldn’t say is ranged at all. barely if anything. but serves as a good buff for your team before fights if need / as well as a good heal for yourself is traited. boring, but works wonders while behind a gate door and holding off enemy attacks. once got 7 – 8 kills and few bags of loot just by spamming #1 from inside the gate. not sure why people don’t move though.

to add: should probs run with renewed focus but i usually elite Tome of Wrath. short quickness buff as well as scaring enemies off when they see blue flames lighting up around them. not as effective on top of walls as i’d like it to be though. and of course, at the disadvantage of having all your other skills / utilities stripped for the duration.

@Fabsm – okay, good to know. i thought i was seeing things. lol. was lookign to get maintence oils cause i kept hearing about ‘em. looked ’em up on wiki and didn’t see what people said it would give.

Q – i know that PoV has some issues with certain shouts proc-ing condition removal. are there any known shouts that don’t work with superior soldier rune set? (had SYS, Retreat and HTL slotted)

in TA exp for the first time the other day, fwd/fwd path. kept being feared like no other and none of my shouts seemed to effect it. i guess follow-up question, should i be able to remove or sit through fear using cleansing and stability, respectively?

i almost feel like this is a bug. if we’re talking about the same thing.
a lot of “yellow” wildlife mobs do do that. whereas aggressive mobs sometimes will just seem to have switched off. and they turn away like they weren’t even fighting me or i’m not even there. i try to keep hitting them. they’re “invincible”. and their health regens. then after a while, they’ll switch back on and start fighting or taking dmg again.

if anything, you can always do the LA jumping puzzles. they scale to your level so when 80, you’ll get appropriate leveled loot.

and regarding pre-cursors, i’ve only heard one was found in the Eternal Battlerground JP chest in WvW. haven’t heard it dropping from any other JPs.

i play Guardian and at certain encounters when other warriors / guards are going range, i still go melee if it’s viable. and as long as i’m not hurting the group dynamics, which i want to say, are non-existent so far in this game. as long as you’r enot dying and having people risk themselves to come rez you, melee all you want.

of course, be aware of your surroundings, but most good groups i’ve been in, or faster dungeon runs / boss fights, are with 2+ in melee range. just need to use your mitigation, dodging well. which, as a Guardian, you have plenty. ; )))

i’ve been consistently grouping for dungeons with folk on other servers. : )) it’s been rather hard finding a full group on my own server, and for certain dungeons, so needed to search a bit.

just need to be in party, on same map as well.

since the past patch, they supposedly buffed the last bosses in path 2. still doable, but just a major pain. path 1, even after the first boss, mobs still spawn. supposedly the trick is to fight the 2nd boss in the doorway, but heard that was fixed now.

either way though, i’m only running path 3 now when i can. not in a hurry and not exactly my favourite dungeon. : ))

congrats!D
that is awesome and i’m starting to really take a liking towards underwater combat, though chances aren’t high but when in water, it’s awesome.

my second legendary is going to be the spear as well. good luck with that s well! thanks for the share : ))

: ((( it’s always sad when i think of characters getting deleted.

that being said, if you start off on this new server now, you can create characters, play for the 5 days, and i assume you’re planning to move again? as lordkrall mentioned, your entire account, as well as all progress made with your new characters will be transferred to the new server/world. if that’s what you’re asking.

@FGreenOak – nice shots! LOL and thanks for sharing ; ))) they’re a good bunch to run with hehe. and nice gear!!

by fractals do you mean one of the 9? or level?
i’ve done two full fractal runs (3 sets of fractals) plus the jade maw boss, which counts as a fractal as well.

of the second fractal run, two were repeats from the first fractal run i’ve done. and i got the monthly done this way.

iirc, i read a post either here or reddit that someone got a precursor from the EB jumping puzzle chest as well.

hey Pigwig! i’d say ultimately, it depends on if you prefer using the sword/shield combo more, or the greatsword. i know i’m not really answering your question directly, lol, but in the end, it’s what you feel more affinity towards and feel more comfortable using. personally i haven’t used the sword in a LONG time. more of a hammer / GS user, paired with either staff or scepter + focus/shield.

if you want to stand out more, i’ve definitely seen more sunrises than bolts. i personally am a fan of both. but ahhh, having both bolt and the flameseeker would be AWESOME. i was planning to go for the flameseeker prophecies but we’ll see how that goes since i don’t use the shield that much anymore.

in terms of actual gameplay, i feel the GS is slightly more versatile for dungeons, mainly because of the #5 pull as well as the PBAoE from most of the attacks. at the same time, i feel you can benefit from AH more using the GS. the sword itself is extremely mobile, gives very good single target DPS and you can pair that up with focus / shield and or focus at any given time.

hey messup, glad to hear!D haven’t had the honor of meeting you in-game yet, but hope to do so soon. ; ))

you can check this out, has pretty good list of named exotics you can craft using the mystic forge:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Forge/Other_Items

is this what you’re looking for?
if by level 400 you mean weaponsmith/artificer/huntsman, there is the default exotic you can craft by them (e.g. pearl weapons via weaponsmith) and you need to get the recipe for the inscriptions from the NPC of the corresponding craft.

in addition, here are a couple i know off top my head:
Destroyer weapons http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Destroyer_weapons
Corrutped weapons http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corrupted_weapons

i think it’s an awesome looking sword and i’ve never seen it on anyone before in-game. the stats i’d probably transmutate if i were to use it. but again, fingers crossed we’ll see some improvements as to how +Healing Power scales.

i’d bank it for now too. :PP

even with the lowest HP pool, i’ve seen many Guardians survive way longer than most other classes if played well. i don’t even need to hit my heal spell to heal, all the while booning myself as well as my allies. i can make sure my teammates stay in the fight by just popping a virtue, shout and or with a dodge. we can revive downed teammates without being interupted, and bring them back up to full health if we choose to. to name a few of what the Guardian is capable of.

now numbers can definitely paint a picture, but they’re not everything.. rather, it’s more about what you actually achieve and how you perform while playing in dungeons, in WvW/PvP or in PvE.

hmm, i’m at a lost at the moment in regards to what could be causing the problem then. maybe post a screenshot of the items you’re trying to transmutate?

you’re most welcome, Aeleniel! just hope all that reading helped you, if even only a little. : )) i felt that’d be a good starting point. and iirc, i put the rest mainly into toughness until i respecced after reaching 80. : )) unfortunately, the Zeal (Power) line doesn’t offer too much at this point.

if you enjoy the hammer, i recommend you go take a peek at the Hammer + Altruistic Healing stickied thread! it’s along read but a lot of good info. if you like the sound of it, you can start speccing towards that too perhaps. ; )) take your time though!

the hammer is slow, but with practice it becomes a very fun weapon to play with and actually keeps you on your feet at all times. added mechanics of dodging, placement of the symbol and switching targets mid combo is pretty fun! the scepter does seem weak, but is actually very very strong vs single target, especially when specced into high crit chance and dmg %.D if they’d only fix the speed a bit on the first attack lol i actually consistently run with Hammer + Staff or scepter/shield or focus. and sometimes with the greatsword. the greatsword is a lot of fun too! so glad you’re using that too ; ))

the Guardian’s really fun and i love playing mine. : ))) we’ll defs look into some dungeons when time come’s!

[added: just thought of this! if you don’t find you’re having a hard time surviving after these few changes (especially the mouseturning ^^), you may want to spec into power as well while leveling since more power works wonders at lower levels. power + precision from gear is always a good combo]

Pangie.3217:

I recently decided to go for a legendary weapon because it’s so shiny and I wants it. When I made my decision I knew full well that it would probably take a year to make it. I’m slowly but happily working towards my goal. I already had my badges of honor, my gift of exploration and bunches of karma. Every time I get a clover there’s a big smile on my face. So I’m thoroughly enjoying the process and don’t find it to be a grind because I’m not grinding. I spend a few minutes here and there around the world to get my mats instead of staying in one place for hours grinding. I’m visiting maps I haven’t been to since I first cleared them out. So I don’t mind that there is this getting gold and mats part of the legendary. It makes it just that much harder to get and a little more special.

I will add that the only thing I don’t like is getting the Arah dungeon tokens.

thanks for sharing this. i knew i wanted a legendary from when i first heard about them. when i laid eyes on the Juggernaut, i knew i wanted THAT one. so then, i began my quest for one…

and the same, i knew what i was getting into. i knew i wasn’t going to be world first. i knew it would take quite some time and materials and effort. but i don’t mind at all. i’m slowly but surely making my way towards the legendary. i’m about half way with most stuff.. but pretty much everything i do in-game is, one way or another, contributing to my legendary. i’ve had about 99% map completion for the longest time. what with only a few skillpoints and POIs i can count on one hand left to tackle, but i’m in no hurry. sure i like seeing progress, and that being said, i don’t mind taking my time either. i love the game as is, and only look forward to more improvements. the day i get my legendary will just be a huge bonus. ; )))

@Aeleniel – hehe, about to go off to lunch now, but i’m gonna write back before i head out first. ; )) iirc, you’ve played a few MMOs before? though from what i’ve heard gw2 is very different. when i switched to mouse turning, it made a BIG difference in terms of gameplay for me, namely being able to be more aware of your surroundings, which i feel can be quite key. ; ))

what build or weapons are you using right now? though to be honest, while leveling up, you should try to use each weapon as much as possible and find something tha tyou enjoy : )) i fell in love with the hammer and am still using it now. offers a lot of CC, and the #1 chain skill can almost offer perma-protection if specced for it. and you can self combo. : )) then have switched my alternate set to consistently being a staff now. i used the sword and torch alot while leveing cause it’s always fun to spew fire lol.

in terms of traits, i would put 5 into virtues as early as you can because this pretty much doubles the utility our virtues offer. and then when you can, going 15 into radiance helped a LOT in PvE and while leveling. the minor trait Renewed Justice allows you to pretty much spam F1, because it is refreshed each time you kill a mob (doens’t have to be finishing blow) which with 5 in virtues, gives might, as well as blinds as well as burns when traited. so when i got this, it helped make PvE-ing mobs a lot easier. and i was definitely dying less as well lol

this is a decent build to start off with and with the rest of your points you can go either toughness – which i think most Guardians will go for. if not, then vitality as well! many other Guardians like having boon duration since the many boons we have at our disposal to apply, and i am looking into this as well one day.

in general, as the game stands currently, speccing for condition dmg or healing is not as beneficial for a Guard at the moment. mainly because the only condition we have is burning, which only stacks in duration, as opposed to intensity. and for healing, it doesn’t scale as well as it ought to.

i’ll leave it at this fo rnow, but feel free to ask anymore questions! lot of great threads in the Guardian sub-forum as well. ; )) and i’m always happy and free to talk builds and what i know about the Guardian. no way an expert, but i sure as heck love playing mine! FOR GR-GR-FOR GREAT JUSTICE.. FOR… XDD

iirc, you’re on ET? if you want and when you reac the right level we can do some dungeons together so you can see how it works in person as well if u want. and to be abel to play together with some of the awesome players on here! : ))

to note, for example, i have a 5x pirates rune set and 1x traveler’s rune for my MF gear. reason being, the 6piece bonus for the pirates set is to call upon a bird iirc? which as awesome as that sounds ; )) i wanted more MF, so thus the 1x traveler’s gives me an extra 10% MF.

so you can mix and match, depending on if certain effects that many full rune sets can proc.

@Prince – that’s an interesting suggestion regarding the gem store thingy. where you convert a soulbound item to be accountbound. ; )) why not throw that into the suggestion forum anyways.

that being said, i believe you should be able to use the workaround for orders armour to do the same. i haven’t field tested it, but i know people who’d done the same with order weapons. so i want to assume it’d be the same. and worst case, you’d just have to retransmute the stats you wanted on the greatsaw skin back for your mesmer.

good luck!!

@Pawky – welcome to the Union! : ))) glad to have you on board, and hopefully someone in-game before me will be able to send you an invite. i am a monoholic myself. i do have a lvl 10-ish engi and warr but i use mainly to do the JP in WvW. :pp my Guardian is my main and i am going to keep maining him until the end of time lol. control and support ftw.

hope to see you around soon! i have been looking to level up my Engi so i may come to you for some skill mechanics-based questions. ; )) i def did a lot of research on my Guard.

@symbiont – that’s kind of strange. so what you’re saying is your PoI right outside the fractals was going back and forth? and when it was missing, you still got your 100% map completion rewards! hopefully ANet does look into that. i was worried that introduction of new items would in fac tmess with the current already semi-buggy 100% map completion…

@OP – that’s odd that you’ve traveled to all maps, have all of them say 100% but you’re still missing POIs and vistas. just quadruple checking, you 100% all major cities as well? if that’s the case, then do submit it as a bug and hopefully it gets looked into asap.

what these guys said. : ))) i run a similar build as well and might is definitely all ove rthe place. you play off your crits, which boon you (and allies), heal you, and sustained high damage with high enough crit.

this makes you extremely survivable, in a sense, keeps you always on the move, and dish out good dmg. very, very fun.

when i’m at work, yes yes, i know, i should probably be harder working.. lol, bu ti like to keep tack of how our world is doing! and can i say, as even not the biggest WvW-er out there (still map completing, working on a legendary, another set of exotic armour, what have you…) whenever i’ve been on in the past couple of weeks, it’s been helluva good time!!!

SoR – props to you all. the various commanders and people i’ve run with, great stuff.

GB and IoJ – formidabble foes!! have had a few clashes here and there with either side of you. both in large scaled battles and of the more stealthy skirmishes that only you and I know about. keep it up.

and here’s just a special token of appreciate for those who have stayed on topic. it’s been an honor, serving as well as playing against these three giants.. best of luck to all!

are you talking about the Transmutation stone?

try only using items in your inventory and drag them into the “box”.
supposedly you can’t transmutate anything that you have equipped (although they should have fixed this in the last patch).

HotW bsoses just have WAY too much HP. rather see some more interesting mechanics. ; )))

that being said, it’s definitely my favorite dungeon as well.. simply for the environment alone.

add me as well! : ))) though note, i am terrible at the laser jumping, even though i love jumping puzzles, lol. so if you guys have no problem with that, i am down for everything and actually ENJOY the alpha fights. i don’t mind even if you don’t want to stack. although, of course makes things a LOT easier. lot of PUGs i’ve been with just won’t stack though, since it’s rather.. counterintuitive to stand right front of a scary looking boss, specially when they’re used to being ranged.

the same goes for everyone here! if you’re interested in doing CoE. add me!!!! especialy if anyone wants to do story. i want to be able to go in reliably (when it’s uncontested) and not having to find someone with access. : )))

every group i’ve done path 3 with so far, has luckily been with an ele or two. and once in the room, an icebow drops by default. ; ))) definitely makes things go a LOT faster.

supposedly they fixed hitting stationary objects, i.e. burrows in the latest build? or that it’s upcoming? as melee i’m always strafing though side to side, if not circle. i usually end up behind the burrow as well, so i can see better where the next one may pop, since i don’t have the locations memorized :ppp

hey Xante! i can try to help answer a few of your questions : ))

1) i know it works on the mobs in the Caudecus Manor dungeon. haven’t tested this thoroughly, but i want to assume if covers at least bandits and separatists.. not sure about pirates though. but possibly. hope someone can answer this better!

2) haven’t field tested this but i’d assume they stack.

3) for this, i’d say it depends on your playstyle? so if you plan on going heavily condition dmg, definitely go into it. but if you’re only applying conditions every so often, i wouldn’t spec too far into it. really depends on what other statas you’ll be sacrificing to get that little bit of condition dmg on. for e.g. i only main a Guard and the only condition we can apply is burning. and even though i burn every fifth attack or trigger my virtue of justice, and/or through other utilities.. i haven’t specced a drop into condition dmg, as i rely more on precision and melee. i don’t know the other classes enough to comment, but i have a few ranger friends who seemed to have liked using condition builds.

4) afaik, passive effects don’t seem to be counted as a boon. a good rule of thumb is to look at the the little icon above your skill bar. i want to say they would only be boons if they are in the form of the little yellow/orange icon

again, e.g. from my Guardian, the effects i get from my virtues aren’t counted as boons and show up as their own icons.

you can check this page out as well:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_nomenclature

afaik, that combination, sadly, does not exist ingame yet.

i can confirm that you need the keys yourself to open the BL chest as well. i’ve ran in before with only one half of the key when someone else opened the vault, and couldn’t loot the chest. lol

just dropping by again!DDD

what Glitch said. though, i do appreciate the Roman references. ; )) have always fascinated me.

@Debs – i dinstinctly remember sending you an invite! ; ))) like mentioned, just hit “G” or open the guild panel and you should see your invite there. drop another note if you don’t see it! apologies for the delay and hopefully we’ll see you in-game, in-guild soon!

@Adrian – just wanted to say.. welcome!!! and i absolutely love your character names and the intro you gave ‘em. ; )) make that your entire post. lol gave me a good laugh here and there. and i’m at work!

@MissKittin – welcome to you as well! i need to finish my personal story as well!!! at level 72 and know that for the final, you’ll need a party of 5 and do Arah story mode then i realized you were on EU server : (( lol and +1 for Baldur’s Gate mention ; ))

@anyone and everyone – did someone mention Jumping puzzles? spacebarspacebarspacebar

@those interested in WvW – if you haven’t tried it, you must! : ))) it can get pretty messy. and unfortuantely, at the moment, can heavily depend on your server as well as commanders, BUT it’s been great fun everytime i’ve been in. even at lvl 21, my first time, and i had no idea what i was doing :/// and true we won’t get to play with one another.. rather, perhaps, against one another!! muahahahahha. except you don’t get to see people’s names on enemy forces, heh

depends on your risk appetite.

that being said, sellign unID dyes have a pretty decent return now, and you find them for “free”, so might as well sell them. chances to get a dye over their current rate is rather slim, personally i feel.

at the same time, i’m going for collecting all dyes, so i open all of mine regardless. :pp

hey there! on SoR here. feel free to add me and i’m willing to help out. am only up to level 3 myself, so will go for level 1. given my limited experience, have done well so far in the fractals, and as long with a group that is willign to work together.

though, timing might be hard. i’m in a GMT+8 TZ. add me either way and if you happen to catch me, i’ll definitely help out.

good luck!!

thanks for the replies, folk. this is mainly just to experiment with a different build. i’ll still keep my full knight’s gear so i’m not ditching one thing and switching completely to another. this game offers a lot so i don’t want to be stuck playing the same thing over and over.

if you read my post, i did mention i didn’t want to go glass cannon but see what combinations of gear or runes i could use to bring up my DPS a bit, and rely more on my situation awareness, dmg mitigation or dodging to survive. why not test my skill level a bit and there’s only one way to learn.

appreciate the tips, Trung. i’ll take a look at what you suggested. and mainly gonna probs be for DE’s / dungeons so i’ll try full zerk. and for WvW, you mentioned knight/zerker, as in, knight’s gear, zerker jewls?

just wanted some advice for those Guardian vets out there who’ve gone the more offensive route. i’m currently rocking all knight’s exotics, including trinkets, full Soldier Runes and play 0/5/30/30/5. pretty sturdy with decent dmg. i was thinking of putting a second set of gear together which is even more crit focused and can deal more dmg, undoubtedly sacrificing some “survivability”.

i was thinking:

• again, full Knight’s armour
• Berserker’s jewelry for a change
• Runes – Fire x3 and Hoelbrak x3 or Ranger x5, Lyssa (or any precision rune) x1

I went with Knight’s armour again because i don’t want to go completely “glass”. the knight’s still gives me crit chance, while giving me some toughness to take a few hits. is it worth it to go this route at all? would the berserker’s jewelry make a noticeable difference in terms of my DPS? or perhaps, go berserker’s gear with knight trinkets?

in terms of the runes, which set would be more beneficial?
i run usually with Hammer+Staff or GS+Staff depending. so i can easily stack mights, as well as having empowering might and VoJ activation so thought might duration would be pretty good. and instead of going fire x2, strengthx2, hoelbrak x2 for 60% might duration, it was hard to pass up on 100 extra power
and then the ranger + lyssa is just for even more precision.

and any other suggestions are more than welcome. happy to discuss. : )))

if you wanna go crit chance, you’re going to get more out of gear, by far. trait lines are more for the major and minor traits. : )) i go all knight’s armour as well as trinkets. if you want slightly more survivability of some HP as a buffer to the many conditions that get rained down on you, you can swap out the chest and pants for some Power/Vitality/Toughness gear (temple karma, or dungeon AC, HotW, SE gear). that should give you decent toughness as well as crit chance.

certain traits in the valor line also help – for e.g. the 5% of toughness to precision trait. and then weapons you can go berserkers or knight’s. and then slot Sigil of Accuracy if you want a further boost.

the first time i went into WvW i was only level 21. i got my butt whooped. but over no longer than a short couple hour session, i was able to net 20+ badges as well. given, back then i didn’t really know what i was doing. now, i’ve learned my class more, have better gear, and developed my own playing style, while learning how things work in WvW, even as a Guardian, supposedly weakest in range or don’t do enough DPS, we can easily rack up kills, die a lot less so you got a positive ratio going there, as well as help your teammates without them even knowing it.

just a few highlights:

• being able to “banish” invaders who are performing the stomp animation on any of your fallen allies and knock them away, then proceed to bring your downed ally right back up and even to full health if you wanted; match hammer #4 up with JI and you can surprise smack people around
• using hammer #5. pop it when you see an enemy running towards you. watch them topple. strafe around then, hit hammer #4 before they even get up and knock ’em ino the ring and watch them topple again. then start bashing away before they even know what hit them
• using staff #1 behind the walls while defending a keep, i kept seeing crits all over the place. followed by 7 – 8 EXP points and a few bags of loot show up.. not sure why they would stand there taking the hits.. that’s just ONE guardian. as sissy as the staff may be.. it’s undoubtedly extremely effective in WvW. now imagine if you had a party of 5 Guardians all doing the same thing
• hammer + scepter combo gives you a ton of CC and extremely useful for chasing down stragglers
• once a group memer portal bombed a group of 10 people, trying to cap our supply camp. i GS jump blind in, binding blades those who were trying to get away and fight, VoJ to blind again, drop symbol of wrath, then WW and just watch their health drop before they could even do anything – then my team spotted them and we just cleaned them up

all the while being very survivable. you will still get loads of kills. even with the x/x/30/30/x build, you have very high sustained dmg depending on your gear and weapons.

in WvW< i feel i should be running Renewed Focus more for the invul. and refreshing of virtues.. but Tome of Wrath can do so much sometimes. it really scares people off if you’re running towards them, raining fire down on them. have pushed back or cleaned out enemies zergs with just ToW on multiple occasions. a squad of just 3 of us once held off a zerg of 10 – 15 people for quite some time until reinforcements arrived.

i love playing WvW as my Guardian. : ))