Guild Wars 2

I am praying to the almighty lord that Anet does not Nerf anything and I mean anything for any class and just concentrates on fixing all the bugs and random broken stuff for now and we can get back to class balancing a bit once stuff actually works.

Thz.7569:

I’ll throw out some input.

Those saying hammer dps is comparable to gs have no clue. The only time the hammer can be said to be better than GS is in WvW because it has more cc and mighty blow is very -consistent-. But everywhere else the GS is far above in dps and basic control.

It really comes down to comparable base damages of the GS but the hammer’s auto taking way too long and mighty blow not having higher base value to show similar scaling to the ramp up damage of ww. Also mighty blow is not a reliable blaster finisher because most times you’ll finish a field you don’t want, often just giving retaliation.

Then we take into consideration that the hammer relies on the full auto chain for constant dps thus requiring traiting into symbols, whereas the GS can trait into things like 2h mastery making it that much more effective.

I use the hammer 95% of my time just because I -like- it, but I know I’m weaker in doing so and always notice a staggering difference in effectiveness for those times I want to carry a bit harder and whip out “old reliable”.

I use Hammer 50% of the time and Greatsword 50% of the time because honestly to get the most out of guildwars you need to weapon swap efficiently so that you aren’t sitting around on cooldowns and have access to other unique skills.

In the average fight 1v1 I must swap weapons at least 6 times to counter attacks or apply extra pressure. I agree with your statement about damage though since I usually flip to GS after trapping them with the hammer to give them a good dosage of burst damage.

If they nerf anything to do with our healing then we are screwed end of. The Guardian was always meant to be based around healing and it is one of our saving graces as we don’t have access to all the escape skills or higher HP other classes have.

If they nerf anything they really shouldn’t be and neglect our skill bugs then I’m rolling Mesmer and I really don’t like Mesmers but drastic times and all that.

Spiderwick.1879:

So, basically, everyone goes by playing with a Gsword as it offers the most of our weapons?

If it comes down to what offers the most then I’d have to say Hammer because if you know what you’re doing it’s too awesome for words

Aeolus.3615:

Breytes.6901:

(…)want to find a build that puts me back to having more survivability in WvW but does not require me to re-spend my trait points when I want to go run dungeons. I am hoping this setup will be closer to that goal.

Right now I run mostly P/T/V armor (Karma exotics from Orr) with berserker main and cleric off hands and jewelry is all Mithril Ruby.

Im not an apologist of baserker gear, i would recommend to try the karma orr with soldier stats and baserker jewels , altough im having the same problem as survivability, even with 3.4k+ armor and arround 19k health im “almost” being insta killed on 1vs1, it is how the game works, power/crit wins all.

Surviving in Guild wars is all about mobility and tactics and really doesn’t take as much from armour value or HP like so many other MMO’s.

I’m a burst Guardian and I fought a Burst thief yesterday and thanks to dodging and well timed blocks etc he didn’t lay a scratch on me and I killed him with my own burst once he was trying to run away.

I’ll also admit luck is a big player in some scenarios as well

Gaudrath.6725:

tanshiniza.8629:

Ezrael.6859:

It passes through enemies, it’s in a frontal cone.

Go and try for yourself on the Mist Golems, I’ve hit 2 Golems behind one that I was attacking by using it and got 9 hits, Golems that were out of range for Attack #1 and 2, but in range for #3 because it’s 300 range.

Well I haven’t used the sword in a while maybe it was fixed but back when I used it the sword would only hit the first target.

This is still true for binding blades, if for example you have three enemies in a cone relative to you, some blades might hit a single enemy two or more times, resulting in fewer “tagged” enemies… something to keep in mind when choosing the time to use the skill.

I’m a Greatsword/Hammer Guardian so I knew that already and in fact I use the binding blades as a form of nuke by sitting ontop of one target and letting him take all 5 though that takes some getting used to.

Ezrael.6859:

It passes through enemies, it’s in a frontal cone.

Go and try for yourself on the Mist Golems, I’ve hit 2 Golems behind one that I was attacking by using it and got 9 hits, Golems that were out of range for Attack #1 and 2, but in range for #3 because it’s 300 range.

Well I haven’t used the sword in a while maybe it was fixed but back when I used it the sword would only hit the first target.

Ezrael.6859:

1H Sword will still hit multiple targets if used correctly.

The 1st and 2nd step are arcing attacks in front of you, and so will hit multiple targets.

The 3rd step is a 300 range frontal cone attack, basically if you get your targets lined up you can hit all of them with the attack.

Sword attack chain 3 doesn’t pass through enemies from what I’ve seen.

Anyways when comparing weapons Sword/focus or sword/shield have more defensive options while the greatsword is just DPS and more DPS but that doesn’t mean the sword can’t do some mean damage but it’s more focused for 1v1.

Brutaly.6257:

tanshiniza.8629:

The fact that you think anything without AH is a gimmick just isn’t fair on all those players who don’t want to be stuck to one trait for their entire playtime. Sure this thread is about maxing but that is no excuse for narrow minded elitism.

Sorry if i come on to strong. Dont get me wrong i dont try to be condescending versus people that dont run AH builds. I run them more and more seldom in wvw just due to the fact that i want some variation in gameplay. And still i find those builds to be non competitive but i have no issues with people playing with them. They are in many cases really nice entertainment.

I thought this thread was about max in a certain build, which contains AH, and in such a build not traiting 5 points into virtues isnt max.

So no by all means play what ever you like but i thought the thread was about max builds, my mistake if it wasnt.

You are correct in the case of this Thread when it comes to maximising but it was because you came across a bit strong that I felt the need to say something. I also apologise if I was a bit moody with my reply.

Back to things at hand to maximise an AH build not putting the minimum of 5 in virtues is a mistake but at the same time I can understand how tempting it is to put those points elsewhere. In the end it depends on your play style because even meta builds can flop hard if you don’t usually play in that way.

Brutaly.6257:

haviz.1340:

Meta is the current state of game, doesn’t mean it’s the best. It’s why meta evolves. I consider AH being completely unnecessary trait if you can mitigate damage through other means.

I know what meta means and in this case, in wvw in particular, a build without AH isnt the best so atm meta and “best” are the same. Any build out there becomes either a wet noodle or a squischy without it.

Its like the the healway guardian, trait that but instead of stacking virtues and honor go for a 0/0/30/20/20 build with clerics and it gets even more powerful. Builds without AH are gimmicks and/or retal easymode.

Anything without AH or monks focus isnt competitive, other then in duel situation, and this is true in wvw and Tpvp. Tbh i cant see myself loosing out versus any build that hasnt got AH as long as i run a retal/cleric/AH setup.

The thing is you can have AH and also have all the other means of mitigation that any other build has, so not using AH is gimping your self. So if you consider AH to be unneccessary is moot, if you want to max your build AH or Monks focus should be in there, which i thought were the topic of the thread, to max your build.

Classic ‘you need to take this, this and this or you’re not going to be any good’ which is just narrow minded thinking. Sure AH and Monk are pretty much the best traits available to the Guardian right now but by no means are they the end of the line.

The fact that you think anything without AH is a gimmick just isn’t fair on all those players who don’t want to be stuck to one trait for their entire playtime. Sure this thread is about maxing but that is no excuse for narrow minded elitism.

Taicho.1298:

Taicho.1298:

tanshiniza.8629:

Use Knights gears mixed with Berserker.

my stats are (no food):

15225 hp
1870~ Power
1890~ Precision
1670~ Toughness
1350~ Vitality
400 ~ Healing power
Crit rate 48%
Crit damage 82%

I’m 0/10/30/30/0 and by no means a glass cannon but I produce some good damage.

Tanshiniza, u have a very good crit chance and your crit damage is insane! Can you go in a little more detail in your build as in how you got such a high crit chance and crit damage?

Well I use Knights gear with Divinity runes and use mostly Berserker Jewellery and 0/10/30/30/0 not much else to it really haha

Here is my Build that I run in dungeons and I love it and the DPS is great and so is the survivability

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3|9.1g.h15.e.1g.h8|2.1g.h15|1n.b1j.1a.b1j.1n.b1j.1n.b1j.1n.a1.1n.a1|1g.64.1g.64.1g.61.1n.61.1n.64.2s.d14|0.a2.u69b.u38a.0|54.7|e

Use Knights gears mixed with Berserker.

my stats are (no food):

15225 hp
1870~ Power
1890~ Precision
1670~ Toughness
1350~ Vitality
400 ~ Healing power
Crit rate 48%
Crit damage 82%

I’m 0/10/30/30/0 and by no means a glass cannon but I produce some good damage.

Make a build you enjoy playing with then play. Done.

Alvik.4207:

Brutaly.6257:

rasfo.9358:

why to facetank boss and do minor damage if you can deal some serious damage or provide nice utility for group. In this game any class can take care for themselves so why tank?

Why tank, well because its the best overall damage mitigater/support in the game. It effectively removes damage from the team.

Minimal damage???
3k attack
3k armor
50-60% critchance
70-80%% critdamage

With a competent team you dont have to dress down to be able to tank.

And with that you can infact facetank almost everything in dungeons while bashing away and giving the same support as with any other style of play.

Wut…
3k attack – useless stat as a reference, try power
3k armor – hmmmmm
50-60% crit chance – No. More like 10%?
70-80% crit dmg – 30% from traits, rest from where?

Are you really talking about his build?

I think he is saying there are builds with those stats that can fair just as good as the build the OP has mentioned. Basically he is saying why drop the damage or in this case critting mainly when you an easily get away with being DPS and survive with a reasonable team.

Think of it as you would a blender. The longer some thing sits in there the more it’s cut up and turned into mush. I always try to picture a glass cannon thief in this scenario because it amuses me greatly :P

Silentstorm.7531:

I never really notice this being a problem. We have too many other things applicable in a melee fight. If they gave us that too we would be overpowered to be honest. Haven’t you see ALL the videos on you tube of guardians taking on 3-4 people at a time. If we had that too lol……..nerf city bro.

I hate people who say this so I’ma give my usual response.

Any class can take on 3-4 people it just depends on how good those 3-4 people are. I’ve killed my fair share of larger groups in my time but I’ve also died in 1 vs 1 scenarios simply because that person was better than I was. I’m not the best Guardian in the world but I’m pretty darn good and honestly if I go up against other good players I can only hold my ground against 2 of them at maximum and that’s if I’m playing like a skilled ninja in heavy armour.

It’s all about the scenario you find yourself in and the skill of your opponent so at the end of the day this kind of comment is useless in judging how well a class can perform or not perform cause if I ended up fighting a zerg of the players I’ve been killing recently I’d probably wipe the zerg single handedly haha. Just kidding but you get what I mean.

I will simply give you my dungeon build:

0/10/30/30/0

Go for Altruistic healing as well as the heals from symbols and increased symbol size, whip out a mace and shield with a hammer and the amount of healing you’ll get from just that is on an insane level.

Enjoy

Updated stats:

HP: 15k
Attack: 3.1K
Armour: 2.9K
crit chance: 49%
crit damage: 87%

I decided to drop some armour for more damage because 100 toughness isn’t that great a loss in all honesty.

Sorem.9157:

tanshiniza.8629:

When it comes down to Mesmers I use hammer and GS for the aoe so they never really get the chance to use their illusions to their full effect. Though I did fight one the other day that had full berserker gear and also stacked bleeding and I have to say the damage I took was just unreal.

The hammer also works REALLY great vs. mesmers ! The root is such a big deal combined with the burst dmg u will ge on them. Mesmers have distortion, that way they can easily avoid burst skills with long animations (ZD and WW) so Mighty Blow shines here, but u gotta force them into defensive, otherwise they will probably get ya down without the mobility/defense of sword focus.

I know hammers are great against mesmers that’s why I said I use Hammer and GS above haha. I am incredibly offensive though I have a very balanced build which gives me survivability as well as the damage to push people to the edge which is my play style.

When it comes down to Mesmers I use hammer and GS for the aoe so they never really get the chance to use their illusions to their full effect. Though I did fight one the other day that had full berserker gear and also stacked bleeding and I have to say the damage I took was just unreal.

Yet again:
Fix skills bugs and tweak underpowered skills
Remedy the useless trait lines

Done. I have no issues with the Guardian being OP or UP or any other kind of P you may fancy it’s in the same boat as other classes when it comes down to having useless traits and skills that would make no sense no matter the build you run.

Just give Warriors an elite that makes them whip out a Fat Man from the fallout games so that they can Nuke entire zergs and forts killing everything in one blow. Cause screw balance and screw lore ;D

If you go up against a skilled Guardian using the high mobility build (teleports etc) then be careful because depending on his weapon setup he can lock you down for 7 seconds maximum and that is enough to deal some serious damage so in those cases ranged may not be the best option. I’ve never had any problems killing warriors though so I just take a relaxed approach to them and mostly concentrate on using all my tricks and such for Mesmers and theives which means you can also catch me unaware

I wear full knights gear for armour and use berserker weapons.
I have 2 ascended rings as well as the ascended back piece all berserker.
I use Emerald jewellery with emeralds or berserker/beryl in the extra slots.

With regards to food I decided to pick up some lower level stuff that gave me 60 vit and 80 precision which took me to 16,300 HP and 53% crit though for actual WvW etc I take the food that improves my endurance regen rate which is why I gave you may stats without food.

If anyone would like me to I will post my exact stats down to the last decimal point this evening when I can get online

A sword that most closely resembles a Katana is the Ceremonial Sabre just so you now

Ganzo.5079:

tanshiniza.8629:

- Fix the traits lines with regards to where each traits is placed in the branch as well as improving or switching out the traits which are not worth bothering with.

-Improve the range options of this class as well as give us a few more options when it comes to keeping our opponent within melee range.

-Increased size of symbols would be an adequate fix for the current issue instead of us having to trait for a decent area of effect.

-Improve on current weapon skills for example Zealots Defence being such an easily avoidable attack due to such a narrow area of damage.

These are the major things that need to be improved. If anyone has anything to add feel free.

Just look the OP post, all this solutions, and much more, are right there :P

Not saying they aren’t there but I feel this post went off on a bit of a side track to I am putting down the foundations again. If everything in the OP was given to us Guardians we would be a cut above all the other classes which is another reason I’ve given 4 main things that need to be improved.

- Fix the traits lines with regards to where each traits is placed in the branch as well as improving or switching out the traits which are not worth bothering with.

-Improve the range options of this class as well as give us a few more options when it comes to keeping our opponent within melee range.

-Increased size of symbols would be an adequate fix for the current issue instead of us having to trait for a decent area of effect.

-Improve on current weapon skills for example Zealots Defence being such an easily avoidable attack due to such a narrow area of damage.

These are the major things that need to be improved. If anyone has anything to add feel free.

Warriors can 1 hit most mobs with hundred blades so if you want to do farming then go with that.

Alent.4780:

Lalangamena.3694:

I played ele and ele is quite s.h,i.t-t’y support comparing to guardian.

You are kidding right? tanshiniza provides a pretty good debunking of your claims but have you ever played with an auramancer? They are amazing examples of what a support ele can pull off.

I think what a lot of “you get healing so be happy” people here don’t realize is that there is more than one way to support a group. Direct healing isn’t the pinnacle of support nor should it be, and it definitely should require a class to be bad in every other area. No one wants homogeneity but some sort of parity would be nice considering nearly every other class’s ability spread.

Well said there are many ways to support a group. DPS is a form of group support cause you kill the kittens out of stuff so then they team takes less damage as there are less mobs to fight. That is just one example.

We don’t really do 100% speed buff so all you can do is pray someone buffs you or reside to walking ^^

My balanced build:

Attack: 3K
Armour: 3K
Crit rate: 49%
Crit damage: 79%
Health: 15-16K

all without food and I run 0/10/30/30/0 with either AH or Monk depending on the situation so being able to deal damage and survive is more than possible.

Lalangamena.3694:

guardians best heal is the dodge roll, scales with all healing power.
with some vigor you can heal ~129+HP every three seconds. no other class can do so much healing, while tanking and DPSing.

I read a lot of comparisons to how eles are good support.

I played ele and ele is quite s.h,i.t-t’y support comparing to guardian. because in order to play ele properly you have to switch attunements all the time, but the passive regen and healing spells are only on water, so if you stay in water you cant DPS or stack boons, if you dps or stack boons, you cant really heal.

the dodge heal is (grandmaster trait “evasive arcana” in arcane tree) on 10 seconds CD in water atunement with very little sources for vigor while guardian dodge heal is only 15 points trait that have no CD and we have almost 100% uptime on vigor (between 5 seconds of vigor on crit to save yourselves shout )

except fury for party (via sharing auras build water 30 + air 10). there is nothing that elementalist can do but guardian cant.

I’m sorry to say but everything you’ve said above is invalid because you said yourself ‘to play ele properly you have to switch attunements’ which is the classes mechanic and if you don’t like it don’t play it.

The Ele can burst heal when in water then switch to a damage dealing attunement which is the whole point of the class so it would be kinda stupid if you could just go water and deal damage and heal because that isn’t the point of the Ele.

Guardians Heal. It is what we do. We can also deal burst because in all honesty every frigging class can deal burst or go tanky mode if they want.

Some classes have it harder than the Guardian I am not going to deny that and I also think Guardian is one of the most balanced classes in game at the moment they just need to fix the useless skills we have along with the useless skills of every other class as well.

also can Guardians CC, deal damage and heal as well as escape as well as an Ele can? probably not cause I have seen DD ele’s take on 10 people at once and get away with it. If I did that on my Guardian I would die rather quickly.

Alarox.4590:

tanshiniza.8629:

I agree that Guardians are missing out on some serious CC compared to literally any other class but in all honestly I haven’t really missed it. The easiest class for me to kill is the warrior since they have to stay in melee range to deal most of their damage which suits me as a Guardian just fine.

Do you run a classic tank/support build with 30 Valor? If so, then your playstyle has nothing to do with this thread, as tank/support players of the Guardian are perfectly satisfied the way things are.

I am by no means a support Guardian although I do play that way for dungeons for anything else I am full burst. I am not sure what in my original post led you to believe I play support Guardian because all I said really was that I kill warriors easily?

I agree with RAVVSlathotep 100% on this and for a second lets compare GW1 to GW2.

GW1: more fun and viable builds than you could shake a baby quaggan at.

GW2: 1-3 viable builds for each class (3 if you are seriously lucky).

It isn’t each individual class that need a fix nor is it down to buffing or de-buffing classes. It really is about sitting down and taking a good hard look at everything that class is supposed to be, looking at traits/skills that are used or considered useless and potentially remaking things.

Just spec into 0/10/30/30/0 and with those weapons you could either use AH or Monk for healing (maybe AH because your symbol from Mace would benefit).

Point 1: don’t expect answers to your questions to come around so quickly.

Point 2: Why are you using mace/torch and scepter/focus? what does it give you that you like then I can answer you.

Guardians heal, it’s what we do.

Thieves turn invisible and steal stuff, it’s what they do.

Rangers shoot things and set traps etc, (they need a buff cause warrior range is better than theirs) it’s what they do.

I could keep this up for every class but you get the idea. Take away our healing and you take away our classes main mechanic.

We have some useless skills and useless traits that need to be changed to something viable so that we have more build options instead of Monk or AH. I don’t want a buff that gives me the ability to DPS like a warrior and heal HP like an ele traited for 30 water.

I just want balance at the end of the day for all classes so we can stop whining about stuff and get back to enjoying the game.

The issue here is that we have 2 viable builds which are Monk and AH with which you either go Bunker or damage (balanced is possible with some work). A lot of our traits are next to useless and the same can be said for some (not all) of our skills.

Guardian is one of the most balanced classes in game as they are strong but by no means OP. I really don’t like how people are saying to nerf EM and AH because without healing (that is our classes thing just like a thief has stealth and a warrior has insane DPS) we would be so underpowered we may as well just stop playing a guardian.

We have survivability, it’s what we do and I have to say there are plenty of other classes out that could do with a buff and others that need a nerf.

We really just need our pointless abilities and traits fixed then we are good to go.

Sooooo…nothing really changed then…Was hoping they’d fix a few things that actually caused major issues but what the hell I’ll take this random near useless stuff.

Only a Guardian can say “Beam me up scotty” and teleport with a flash of light.

I agree that Guardians are missing out on some serious CC compared to literally any other class but in all honestly I haven’t really missed it. The easiest class for me to kill is the warrior since they have to stay in melee range to deal most of their damage which suits me as a Guardian just fine.

I watched the video and the fact that nearly all of those players just stood right in the middle of every bust attack just makes me think ‘those are either some serious sadists or just plain stupid.’ I understand that immobilise was applied before hundred blades was used but sitting in the whirling axe attack after that makes no sense.

Symbol of swiftness does not stack with any other swiftness and on some occasions overrides the original swiftness turning 30 seconds into just 1 second.

It is near impossible to take on more than 1 skilled player on at a time playing as a Guardian especially if they are rocking out the thief or mesmer but then again that’s the same for most classes (except for thieves, mesmers and D/D eles because well they’re just good at avoiding people). It’s an easy class to play but a very tough class to play well because there are a lot of little tricks you need to learn to get ahead of the enemy.

The only time this attack works is if you catch people by surprise and you are literally and standing so close to them you may as well get married and have 3 kids together. Considering this is meant to be a potential ranged attack it really leaves much to be desired.

I am currently in love with my teleporting build in WvW as I can port into the middle of a zerg and hit 5 people for 4-5K damage and cause 3K burning damage which in a zerg with people already as low HP from aoe this can be 5 instant kills. This is a little suicidal but once you know what you’re doing you can get in and out without any problem.

In my experience The symbol of swiftness is only good for getting from A to B and does not have any in-combat merits and nor does it work well for trying to escape from enemies. If you cast it just a little bit in front of you then you’ll get the buff without having to stop and stand in it. Other than that I can’t think of any other tips for making this rather weak skill any better.

Sorry I couldn’t help any further and I have been playing Guardian from day 1 so I’m sure I’m not missing anything.

I think warriors might have an ability called charge but I may be wrong and also Charge has been used so often for abilities like this so it’d be nice to see something new.

AH builds work wonders for dungeon and I use mace and shield with increased symbol size and extra symbol healing and it’s great for keeping yourself and allies alive. I use Knights armour mixed with Berserker trinkets to maximise my DPS while maintaining good survivability.