Guild Wars 2

This is the tPvP build I’m running atm. It’s pretty similar to one discussed ~week or so ago on here, and uses spirits to dish out burning and protection. Works well and honestly the only downside is extreme condi pressure(think multiple necros etc).

http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=-HV-7k;0wEFx-n2wDk-0;9F01;29TT;20;026A35A;1S-F6E;1Rk06Rk061Vs

It’s VERY effective 1v1 and can hold it’s own 1vX(usually no more than 2, otherwise it’s just a waiting game until you die). Team fights…it’s even better as the burning + protection = super nice utility.

I tried running a variety of builds(HGH, bombs/grenades, etc) and settled on SD for PvE(not WvW). It hits super kittening hard and with a good group it can output crazy numbers for CoF p1. Some of the other builds might have more utility, but honestly, PvE is…sooo easy that if you’re needing that utility(be it stealth, extra blocks, etc), then you’re probably doing something wrong(or your group is).

Then you obviously didn’t put much thought into it.

You weight it, just like you do any other ranking system, to favor positive votes. Someone getting a negative overall rating wouldn’t lose much(if anything), but a lot over time would contribute to a drop in rank. However, if you got a favorable rating in a game, as well as a win, then it would be the deciding factor in “bumping” you to a higher rank.

Again, it isn’t the SOLE factor in rank; it would be part of the overall system, which would also include PPM/G, KPM/G, CPM/G, Overall Heals/DPS/G, etc.

The current system is utter trash and just further contributes to the “GW2 isn’t an e-sport” mentality.

I like your ideas, but the whole “voting” stuff is pointless: people will do what they want to do, and for the most part, that is just to be complete kitten s and off-point fight the whole game.

We need a way to rate players post-match and for those scores to contribute to the overall “skill” score for that player(if we ever get an actual GOOD ranking system in this game…lol).

Per title: We need a post-match way to rate teammates, like:

• 1-5 scale on overall quality
• Y/N stayed on points/helped cap/defend
• Y/N was a team player
• Y/N would play with again

And then combine that with the hopefully upcomming fixes to tPvP/rating system.

I’m about ready to lmnoPZ this game due to people solo-qing and not understanding how to play the game(even when they are 30+…which just goes to show that level doesn’t mean ****).

There is no point playing a game when 1-2 players are consistently off point the ENTIRE game and bottom frag with 0 points. Total waste of time.

Yes, the game is GREAT with a premade, but otherwise…lol

I got my rifle skin for 35g buy-order; why would you spend $45+ RM on RNG? You could make 35-50g for a buy-order in 5-6hrs of CoF (basically 1hr a day for a week…wow lots of hard work).

That said, I agree it would be nice to just be able to straight buy (RM) some special skins. ex: Aetherized weapons for $10 (same as an armor set). Then again, ANet probably makes MUCH more cash off the people who buy into RNG and “waste” their RM on RNG boxes.

Let ANet know what you want with your wallet: if you don’t want RNG boxes for RM, then don’t buy it anymore. Either use in-game funds or flat-out say no.

Well…you should have realized that the quickest route that avoids RNG is ALWAYS the best route in an ANet game. That means: RM > Gems > Gold > TP. Why you would expect RM > Gems > RNG to give you a better return is beyond me. They are KNOWN for RNG RNG RNG RNG.

tl;dr: don’t waste RM on RNG; ALWAYS choose the RM > Gold option if possible.

I don’t mind it(as someone who plays against War CC all the time). Just l2p; not that hard to avoid the telegraphs.

Yes, definitely if you are already at that level you listed.

It’s roughly on average 65g to do a 1-80 craft; if you do the cheapest crafts it should take you ~13-15g(2.5-3 crafts) depending on whether you want to max out one or just do half of one and hit 80.

edit: I see you already did the cheapest ones(for the most part) already. IMHO, go run some dungeons, do some WvW, and maybe do some karma train stuff once you get in the 70s. That will save you the 21g and it shouldn’t take more than a few days of 2-3hrs a day.

It’s more than just a transmute stone for the non-skin variety right? You can’t use that variant in PvP either, so it’s worth considerably less than the skin variant.

Levetty.1279:

Not to sure about the change to Hunter’s Shot really especially as we have a big ole pet giving away that we are near. Then again I guess that isn’t the point of that particular stealth skill, should be interesting to mess about with at least.

I liked Mauls change but it kind of makes the positions of the traits linked to GS even weirder.

Some good changes too other stuff as well, especially a blast finisher that isn’t tied to a pet. Only down side really is that with buffs to both power builds and a blast finisher to mess about with in traps it doesn’t really make my decision into what build to respec into any easier.

Edit: Wow I didn’t even notice the rapid fire change. Yeah I am def liking the new hunter’s shot then. I think this should be very interesting.

Methinks the stealth is mainly for PvE, where you can fire HS, the mob will then focus solely on the pet and then keep focus once you leave stealth; previously unless you made sure to enter combat with the pet first(and even then it wasn’t always true) the mob would usually aggro you instead.

82/83, full mail is checked but it didn’t give me the achievement when I did it.

Sigh. Story of my life.

Was sitting at 82/83 hints, just got 10/10(full mail) and had some more sitting in queue(all player sent)…hint message pops up…and no achievement.

I can see that it’s “checked” off but it still shows 82/83…

Seriously?

I like that condi removal on evade change-up. That would be god-like for the build I run.

Too bad ANet doesn’t listen more to the Ranger(and other) communities.

Criminal.5627:

my own personal thoughts on how to make Long bow work and make it a lot better, feel free to give opinions… in a mater of fact please do lol.

• giving point blank shot the swiftness grant to pet,
• giving long range shot one stack of vulnerability at less than 600 range for 6 sec, 2 stacks of vulnerability for 6sec at 1000-600 range, and 3 stacks of vulnerability at 1000+ range for 6 sec and keep all damage constant as the vulnerability stacking would be enough of a reason to keep range with this skill without punishing players to heavily if someone uses a closing gap skill on them. <- which is the current case rangers are punished for not having enough abilities to gain distance with classes that have several gap closers.
• removing hunter’s shot since it no longer has a place since it’s mechanics are covered by the 2 skills listed above
• drop barrage down to skill #4 reduce it’s CD by 4-5 sec
• add new skill to slot #5 that ether does double dmg on a moving foe or does significant dmg and can immobilize a moving foe with a possible cd range of 30-35 sec maybe even 40 seconds untraited if the damage is significant enough.

I like pretty much ALL of these. Although, I think #5 should be something along the lines of:

• Splinter Shot = inflict 3s bleeding every 2s for a total of 10s(basically 5x 3s ticks), inflict 2s cripple every 5s for a total of 10s on moving foes(basically 2x 2s ticks). That would give us an ability to punish people moving/trying to close distance etc.

Julius.1094:

somsom.5201:

@ OP: because it’s filled with cheese. The cannon is OP, and with a partly intelligent cheese build you can lock it down easily. The points are VERY easy for specific cheese builds to hold…solo. On top of that, you’ve got all the cheese blue glass spots that just further increase the cheese. Oh and the cannon AOE radius is HUGE…plus the time between shots is WAY WAY WAY too short.

tl;dr: Chuck E Cheese

Is there anything about spvp that isn’t cheese to you? lolz

?

We are discussing a map that largely rewards cheese. Going against those builds on any other map is no issue, but when you’ve got a cannon with huge aoe, holes to fall through right next to a point, and plenty of other ways to get knocked off the map…tell me how it isn’t exactly a cheese map? Can you do it without cheese? Sure, but it takes zero effort to run a warrior, guardian, ranger or necro on it with a simple cheese setup, so why do anything else?

Heizero.9183:

You people act like you are fighting on a tightrope. There is plenty of room for maneuverability.

Because you pretty much are.

Take the cannon point: the sides are obviously a knockoff dream, the glass itself is an issue, and the “platform” part is incredibly narrow that a few necro marks can completely lock it down.

Take point B: the cannon AOE covers the ENTIRE point except for a small single character amount on the very corners(next to the jump pads on the lower level). That means if the enemy has the cannon they can lockdown mid, as you either eat the dmg(lol no) or you have to fight in that small corner which means you don’t re-cap it(or you get knocked off the map/locked down in that small corner).

Take the other two points A/C: both of these have glass surrounding them AND the cannon AOE covers MORE than the point(it actually goes up the walls and touches the top ledges), meaning there is ZERO safe spot within the point itself(not even like with point B ).

The only places where you WON’T fall to your death are spawns.

Case in point: we 3v5’d with a necro holding cannon and the other 2 rotating points together against some 50s who called us out for cheeseing. It’s an INCREDIBLY easy map to lock down if you hold the cannon. It only illustrates how well your cheese builds work.

@ OP: because it’s filled with cheese. The cannon is OP, and with a partly intelligent cheese build you can lock it down easily. The points are VERY easy for specific cheese builds to hold…solo. On top of that, you’ve got all the cheese blue glass spots that just further increase the cheese. Oh and the cannon AOE radius is HUGE…plus the time between shots is WAY WAY WAY too short.

tl;dr: Chuck E Cheese

Tried him for 3 hrs…finally gave up. Pointless achievement that will eventually be fixed.
I tried every single combo you can unlock…none helped.

It’s basically flat-out luck because he can spam his special, block your heals(he cheats), block your bluffs, etc. Plus, the AI have unlimited specials while we only get ONE use. Totally unfair for this guy.

Honestly, just use orbs. For the PVT build you are running, there aren’t many rune sets with much utility. Might as well just go for maxing stats instead.

Zumy.6318:

2800 hours played:

-3 Precursors in WvW
-3Precursors in Open PvE
-2 Precursors in the Maw Fractal
-3 Precursors from the Mystic Forge

I believe some accounts are flagged with perma DR and some have passive magic find.

I literally said “what the kitten” out loud. That pretty much confirms that some accounts can be “luck” tagged and others get DR out the whazoo.

I hardly even get dyes…let alone pres.

@ people saying the reason is due to Charr character clipping…you realize they could just implement a different “form” of cape for them right? It makes more sense for Charr to have the warbanner backpiece anyways(what we have right now).

@ OP: congrats I guess

I still think there is a hidden “luck” flag for characters in this game, because I’ve NEVER had anywhere near that kind of luck(I hardly even get dye drops anymore).

@ OP:

No one(aside from maybe 3 people) gives a kitten about the story.

But…if you do, there is an easy way around it: require you to have finished the story and then you can select a couple bullet points to change up your ending with your new race.

Not a big deal to implement…so get on it. 800-1200 gems BOOM, I’d buy 3-4×.

SpreadCheeks.3801:

Any build advice for tagging/pressuring in t1 zerg vs. zerg?

My advice: PVT gear, chilling blinds, and some of the siphon/healing traits. Utilities like epidemic, any of the + power/condition, or spectral wall.

A fair number of the necros in our guild use something similar to this with great effect in T1 large scale zergs. It hits hard (~2500 power), has great sustain (~2800 armor, ~30k HP), and the plague utility is great.

Another option would be to go with one of the condition tank builds above, as they will work better with the new torment skill. Depending on the build, you might lose out on chilling blinds, which is arguably one of the more important traits for our meta.

So…are we going to be getting these or are they NPC only?

Or, you know, fix the matchmaking “system”.

Still terrible. Don’t waste your time unless you’re in a pre-made.

They mean melee in the sense that it isn’t a bow. Melee can still be thrown/ranged to a certain extent though, as is the case here with axe.

New look 15char

Striking a pose

I use a similar approach to sling: keep a backup weapon with stacking to use at the start(usually sb or axe for tagging in a zerg), then swap back to my main weapon. Using an approach like that will allow you to keep some crit/crit dmg pieces if you choose to.

So far, my most used sigils are: Life, Fire, Force, and Energy. If I’m running two melee sets I usually go with double Energy for swapping; otherwise I go with one Energy on melee and Fire/Force on the bow(with Life on a backup bow/axe).

It really depends on your build/your group, but for the most part they fit into a roaming/scouting role BEST. They can provide great blocking, heals/regen, and defense, but it requires a certain playstyle that most find boring and that most groups simply have better ways of obtaining.

That said, I’ve been running my cleric GS+SB/LB build for the past few weeks in a more zerg based style and it has worked out very well. The amount of stuns/locks, heals/regen, etc that you can drop can be VERY beneficial to keep assaults. As well, the cleric build works INCREDIBLY well when skill lag is a factor(EB), as you have regen out the whazzoo.

Ranger has seen a LOT of improvements, but I think we still have a long long ways to go before we are truly a “must” for group comp. Buffs to spirits, traps, and utilities in general are needed to really give us something powerful to offer to the group.

VOLKON.1290:

dangerdoom.3862:

Atherakhia.4086:

LilMcGinley.3890:

VOLKON.1290:

LilMcGinley.3890:

VOLKON.1290:

LilMcGinley.3890:

I believe the issue with laurels is that WvW’ers feel like we should FINALLY be rewarded with Ascended items after being ignored for so long, and now that we have been, we have to wait ANOTHER 2-3 months to outfit ONE character for WvW.

On the other hand, PvE’ers have been running fractals, stashing laurels and globs away for such items for many months.

I finished on my mesmer a couple months ago. What’s the hold up? I’m predominantly WvW, btw.

The hold up is that I don’t want to run fractals or spend laurels to gear my characters. I have a token from killing people that should reward me better than it currently does.

Ah, so you admit that the hold up is a conscious choice you’re making which is interfering with you gearing your character with ascended gear that, at best, only gives a slight boost to stats and no notable advantage? Good, we’re getting somewhere.

Here’s the weird part… if you’re WvWing so much, where are your laurels? I’ve had more dailies complete by accident in WvW than I can count, and it usually take a few minutes when I’m done in WvW for the night to finish off the daily through some easy means, such as crafting food for WvW, gathering mats for superior siege, making superior siege, etc.

If you’re not mostly geared by now on one character that you’ve played regularly for any period of time the fault is not with ANet.

You are missing the point. Laurels are for PvE’ers to use. Badges are for WvW’ers to use. Might as well remove badges as after a stack they are pointless.

No…

Badges are for PvE’rs to use. Every dungeon in the game comes with its own currency.

Laurels are something that anyone can get. Even if you want to pull the WvW card, you’d still have 75% of the Laurels of someone who did every daily/monthly ever as most could be done entirely within a borderland. I know because the only time I left a borderland to do my daily was for the ambient creature slaying because I could kill 100 frogs in 30 seconds in the swamp as opposed to hunting racoons for 20mins. Aside from that, I did all my daily achievements in borderlands and if you didn’t, that was an error on your part. No one elses.

First of all this is bs because it’s only since idk what patch we could do everything in WvW. Crafting/killing mobs/gathering is not WvW. If you count like this we lost 90% of our badges.

Crafting certainly connects to WvW and you can craft in WvW. I make my own foods for example. Gathering feeds into creating superior siege in the Mystic Forge. Mobs… those poor mobs tend to fall victim when zergs collide. When I see the “kill 13 different types of mobs” one, I chalk that up and a given. Same with the “40 kills”… players count for that. (Wait… is it 40 or a different number? I forget. Maybe confusing with 10 players…) Regardless, it was easy and now it’s easier to get your daily without having to leave WvW.

It’s something like “40 kills” which isn’t always a daily, but the “kill 10 enemy players” is always a daily. When you get both of those for a daily then that’s an easy 2/5 because a simple zerg v zerg will net you both of those in a few seconds.

Mek.2947:

How are laurels only accessible to PVE players? Are there not PvP dailies too? I’m not following.

People love to complain about the most inane junk. In WvW you can finish off the daily in the same or LESS time than a PvE’r can. Monthlies are arguably even easier(with all the vet, event and player kills required) for WvW players.

The people complaining about having badges but not laurels(as if that is something exclusive to WvW)…that’s your own fault: 99% of the time I have 4/5 of my daily done in WvW within a few minutes and the other 1/5 is done in LA. If you have less laurels, that’s because you either don’t understand how to do dailies or because you simply didn’t do them. Blame yourself, not the game.

Oh wow, look everyone, a unique post complaining about FREE content. But wait. What’s that? It’s not unique? Oh NO!!!

Look OP: you are getting multiple updates a month that include new content and on-going bug fixes…for free.

If you don’t like it, kindly exit this tab and come back at a later date, since it’s free and no one is forcing you to play.

Pandalishus.8426:

@TogoChubb & Liquid: Thanks. (gross. That sucks for those with extremely high ranks.)

Yep. Sucks for those who played a ton during the initial roll-out and then don’t have as much time to play. Getting that backlog of 100+ levels is going to take FOREVER.

NeHoMaR.9812:

50 globs of ectoplasm? for a WvW player? is that a typo?

That’s like ~8-9g

BFD bro

With what you earn during regular WvW play + your chests from gaining rank…50 ectos is the LEAST of your worries.

Is this for WvW? If so, run Omnom Compote for zergplay: it will net your ~930 HP per tag(kill).

I would ditch the divinity items if possible(pick up some cheap exotics with WvW tokens if you need to until you get more laurels for ascended), and go with more Clerics:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|1.1a.h17|6.1k.h6|1k.7x.1k.7x.1n.7x.1k.7x.1n.7x.1k.7x|21j.0.2u.0.3u.0.21l.0.31l.0.2u.0|0.0.u56b.u28b.a2|5r.7|v.19.16.z.1i|e

or

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|1.1a.h17|6.1k.h6|1k.7x.1k.7x.1n.7x.1k.7x.1n.7x.1k.7x|21j.0.2u.0.3u.0.21l.0.31l.0.2u.0|0.f6.u56b.p28.0|5r.7|v.19.16.z.1i|e

The first is an all around frontline build; the second is a blinding spec.

And lastly, another heavier Cleric approach(like Healway)
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|1.1k.h17|6.1k.h6|1k.71g.1k.71g.1n.71g.1k.71h.1n.71h.1k.71h|4u.0.2u.0.3u.0.21l.0.31l.0.2u.0|0.0.k54.u28b.k2a|5r.7|v.19.16.z.1i|e

I mostly run the first two builds and have been using them off and on for months to great success in NA T1(huge zergs, sustained frontline).

I mainly use Staff for engagements and switch to GS or SW/Focus for smaller scale/1vX encounters.

Once you have a 25 stack of HealPower, swap to a backup staff with something like Stamina/Energy for getting extra dodges/heals during the zerg battles.

Food is VERY important for making Guardian builds succesful and IMO Omnom Compote is THE food to run in zerg play(especially with staff). You will tag a TON of baddies and get ~930 HP per tag/death; that’s on top of your dodges + boons + AH(if you run that) etc.

Gorath.5076:

xev.9476:

No. You’re not going to be able to stand in the middle of zerg and tank damage indefinitely. Despite what someone else said, smaller, well-organized zergs regularly take down larger ones (at least in T2) – but they do so by charging in to burst, then quickly retreating, regrouping, and repeating. In other words, a cleric bunker build is precisely the wrong build to run for tactical zerg-busting. You want a build with decent to high burst, but also with enough survivability to endure a few moments in the heart of an enemy zerg.

I’ve been using a trap build lately, but I’m about to switch back to a signet build full-time. With SoS, SotH, and SotW actives, a ranger can swoop into a zerg, provide good burst, and retreat to do it all over again. A trap build is also effective, though, since no one has enough condition removal for all the crap flying around in zergs. The trick is to throw your traps where the bulk of the zerg will be – not where they are. In most cases, this means just planting traps at your feet, since competent zergs will push through to your back lines.

thats exactly what we are playing in T2 EU, too.
And exactly the core of my question:
We charge in, hit hard, retreat, repeat. But: I found that with 26k HP and 2100 Toughness i am well surviving a push but wont be healed back up once we push back in.
So I thought it might be more effective to settle with around 17k health and 1200 healing power with a good bit of self heal to be able to live through those fights.
Because the one big problem with 26k health and no healing power is: Once you eat a big it: you are dead. with decent healing power you jump out, wait 10 seconds and are at almost 50% live again without even having to waste your water field.

Cempa.5619:

Cleric Power Bow Regeneration is one of -if not the- strongest WvW builds the class has. Just keep in mind you might get board really fast from being so OP.

I d also love to see the build you are talking of! Would you care to share it?

It sounds like what you are after is something with ~18-20k HP, 2700+ armor, and ~1000+ healing power. I’ve been running a 20k, 3-3100 armor, 1100 healing power build for close to a month now in WvW and it works great for the scenario you outlined above(large scale/GvG).

Last night I fought in two LONG battles(NA T1): 1 in enemy garrison that lasted over an hour with no skill lag, and the other was in EB with INSANE skill lag(but still no health issues as my regen was great).

The only downside is that it gets boring(IMO): low dps, high tank factor, and a fairly “static” gameplay style.

The numbers are just bugged when displaying for some reason(you are still doing the dmg). I never knew it was female specific, but that’s good to know that others have seen this too.

Coltz.5617:

Zosk.5609:

I think the fact everybody thinks they need hammer demonstrates how sad trying to melee in this game can be without stuns or jumps.

Mace/Shield + Staff should be much better for you but it is admittedly difficult to keep people in range.

Actually I prefer BLUNT weapons in games, thus I am stubbornly sticking to them regardless of skills.

back on topic, Besides typical AHbuilds, symbols, and (trait for dmg / stats for defence ). What other options do I have really? I feel I am very limited by the game in creativity and builds, perhaps i exhausted my own ~.

before more tips I would like to add I already know there are better wep combination synergy out there with my other builds such as my awesome DPS teleport build, or Hammer – GS trap and destroy builds. However accomplish this particular build with M/Sh + H is proven plain silly in WvW.. ( because im trying to use mainhand M/SH ).
I also believe that this build would definitly need retaliation help for dmg dealing of course.

You might consider combining your tele build with the hammer part of your current build. I like mace+shield too(it’s kitten in tPvP), but I don’t think it works as well in WvW(hammer arguably doesn’t either, but I think it ultimately offers more utility, even if you can’t consistently land your symbols).

Maybe think about going sword+shield(or focus) along with hammer: you’ll get a tele(sword 2), blind(focus 4, sword 2), and if you use a meditation you’ll get another tele. The two teles would work well for maintaining contact and would allow you to quick-swap to hammer(hydromancy perhaps) and lock people down.

The other alternative has already been posted above: mace+shield along with staff. You’ll still run into the same problems with mace though and I think you’ll end up using staff primarily in the end.

I would run something similar to this:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.3|6.1k.h8|9.1k.h1j.e.1k.h2|1k.7x.1c.7x.1k.7x.1c.7x.1k.7x.1c.7x|4u.0.2u.0.3u.0.21l.0.31l.0.2u.0|0.f6.u69b.k28.5|5r.7|v.19.16.z.1i|e
Depending on your playstyle/group comp/zerg status on your server, you might want to think about going full PVT and skip the Cleric elements. Regardless, I would run those traits for both.

Personally, I run the above setup in two different ways: the PVT/Cleric mix and a PVT/Knight mix(basically wherever you see Cleric above, substitute it with Knights).

As for the secondary weapon set, I pretty much run one of the following: sword+focus, sword+shield, mace+shield, GS, or hammer. The staff is a constant in ALL of them though, as it allows for a nice heal and buffs; plus run speed, walls, and GREAT tagging for badges.

fishergrip.4082:

I’ve had good success with a GS/Sword+shield mobility-focused build recently for solo roaming and small grouping. With GS and sword, you have access to 2 weapon-based movement skills, which really boosts your ability to stay on target. Throw in 80%+ swiftness uptime from retreat and save yourselves and two superior sigils of hydromancy and you can keep enemies in melee range pretty well.

Yep, I usually run GS + sword/shield or GS + sword/focus. You end up with lots of blinds, teles/gap closers, etc.

Run it with a mix of Knights and Berserker(or Knights and some form of healing power) and you’ve got yourself a good 1v1/havoc spec.

Peetee.9406:

Anyone else having disconnect problems on JQ BL?

Getting dropped to login every 5 minutes or so, weird that it only happens on that BL.

Yes. Pretty much everyone was getting it last night and subsequently we left BL because of it. I dc’d 3-4x and had 10-20 second skill lag/skips while there.

That’s a whole lot of post for such a meaningless topic. If you honestly have that much of an issue with thieves…dunno what to say. This is mainly to combat door taggers and other minor encounters.

As for those suggesting this as a true anti-veil mechanic…not really. 4 seconds to deploy, limited number of tags, small range, etc. all for something (veil) that lasts briefly.

It’s a gimmick. That’s ALL it is.

Nope. Would be kind of nice to have the option to get cultural armors, but probably a lot of extra modeling/animation work.

Fully traited: shield. Otherwise, focus.

Depending on what kind of havoc squads you’re running, I might lean more towards focus, as I prefer shield for larger engagements(feels like a waste at times with only a few people).

AlBundy.7851:

How come everytime I go into wvw I see zerg balls full of guardians spamming staff skill 1? Is there some tiers that use hammer warriors that I’m not aware of?

Because it works INCREDIBLY well: tags 5 people, even the worst dps specs still hit for ~500×5, you’ve got a wall, swiftness, and a buff, etc. If you aren’t super invested in healing power and go with a more tank/dps build then you can see 1-1500×5 attacks.

Hammer trains are still somewhat of a meta in T1(I know a few guilds still run Hammer trains exclusively), but no where near what they used to be. A 60/40 (Guardian to Warrior ratio) mix is what you usually see lately in large zerg battles for frontline.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.3|1.1n.h17|c.1g.h15.d.1g.h1|1n.7x.1n.7x.1g.7x.1n.7x.1g.7x.1n.7x|4u.d1f.2s.e14.3s.e16.2s.e14.3s.e16.3u.e16|0.f6.u16b.k28.5|39.1|v.19.16.13.1i|e

I ran with a build similar to this(sometimes without the Radiance points, instead the -20% on 2handed) for a LONG LONG time both solo, havoc, small zerg, and in PvE. It works very well and the only reason I switched out of it was because I’m fighting in a larger group now(so need more focus on PVT/frontline uptime).

It has a good mix of tanky, bursty, shouts(2), condition removal, blinds(3), and tele/gap closers(3).