Guardian Builds (Reddit Repost)
Moscow
Mar. 29, 2024
1:46 PM MSK
Sydney
Mar. 29, 2024
9:46 PM AEDT
Hobbiton
Mar. 29, 2024
11:46 PM NZDT
Seattle
Mar. 29, 2024
3:46 AM PDT
Chicago
Mar. 29, 2024
5:46 AM CDT
New York
Mar. 29, 2024
6:46 AM EDT
London
Mar. 29, 2024
10:46 AM GMT

Guardian Builds (Reddit Repost)

By:

Shadeflayer.8906
   Member

Posted On: 10/21/2012 at 05:25 PM

Reposted from GW2 Reddit

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/11tty0/guardian_guide_how_to_build_with_multiple_specs/

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Folks, I'll just start off by saying I am a long time guardian player with 400ish hours of game time(Many more if you include bwe's).

Things to note before you proceed:

  • Pure of voice is bugged. As is strength in numbers and quite a few other traits. They just don't work as intended at present. Honestly I'd have a lot of pure of voice if it actually worked.

  • Please read through https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/guardian/Guardian-Bugs-compilation before asking "Why not this trait?" its very possible Im not using it because it does not work as intended.

  • Real damage does not come from 30 points in zeal alone. At level 80 300 power is not the biggest benefit in the world. Sure, a lot of damage can come from the TRAITS in the zeal tree, but with 0 points in zeal and the right build you can do far more damage in a group situation.

  • You can't dps when you are dead. This is the most important thing to understand. Every second that people have to revive you, or you have to run back into the fight is a massive dps loss. With the majority of these builds in dungeons you just won't die if you play well. Your 100% Uptime on damage will far outweigh being down several times in a fight, not to mention your supporting utility boosts the entire team.

On Choice: The weapon, stat and trait choices aren't stagnant 100% Set in stone! A good guardian will swap weapons, traits and abilities multiple times in a dungeon. None of these builds are completely set in stone, and in fact you will -have- to change traits and weapons if you want to be the best guardian you can be.

If you don't like double shield a good alternative is mace/focus and scepter/shield(Due to if you need to use shield cool downs, and you are at range you don't want to be stuck standing there like a lame goose. 90 toughness loss isn't the worst for some builds). If you run a boon or boonstacker build you should have -many- weapons with you, simply due to the versatility of the specs.

There are many ways you can change singular traits, in a dungeon I will change my traits about before most pulls and bossfights simply due to the variety. the common ones are as follows: Valor V and VI: if you are taking condition damage in a fight, or are going to, V is a much better choice. If there is no condition damage in a fight, VI is the better choice. Mix and match as you start to know the instances better. Honor X, VII and VII: Also very subjective, any can be used, but depending on your build some can be better at other times than others. I'll add more as they come up.

  • Builds:

The Radiant Guardian: (Dungeons/PvP/Farming/Allrounder)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRApe7elcgiCXFSLEm4Eh1jBKQ/hVAjXPcoEZIA

  • Description:The Radiant guardian has toughness, and supportive abilities, excellent for the karma zerg. Feel free to swap in a staff for tagging and additional buffing if doing straits. This build also allows you to do dungeons with no issue. You may also swap out mace for sword in pvp.

  • Stats/runes: Toughness and Healing Power(With a few tough/vit pieces as well to balance your health pool). I personally like all monk. But its really up to you what you rune for.

  • Trait Design: Radiance might seem like an odd choice, but it is actually more supportive in a group situation than honor. (This is only due to Pure of voice being bugged right now, and not working on the majority of shouts)

  • Pros:Your own dps will be very high in a group situation, your constant shouting will keep yourself healed and give a lot of benefit to the group. Healing breeze is an absolute lifesaver(And gives you retaliation), not to mention virtue of justice being reset on every mob death, and blinding foes on use, and removing a boon every time you use it is just incredibly good in dungeons. This is a very active playstyle, most things will be off cool down at nearly all times. You also must have excellent situational awareness to help your group the most.

  • Cons: Not as high a health pool as the Honor Guardian. Heal slightly less, but can be made up for with proper gearing. Lack of stun/daze/knockdown or cripple can be annoying in pvp/some dungeon fights.

  • PVP: Works very well in PVP, scepter works well for destroying oil, you stay alive and basically don't go down. Be sure to roll, and switch between weapons often.

The Bulwark Guardian: (Alternative to Radiant)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRApe7elcgiCXFSLEmIFRuAbBYPwYF741DHKRGC

  • Description: This is an alternate build to the Radiant that would be used if Pure of Voice worked 100% as intended. The majority of the information above is the same, except that your dps is lowered, your health pool is slightly larger, and your virtues give boons as well(Which in turn heal you more etc). You might wonder why the 5/5 instead of 10, its simply a preference choice to both give boons and blind foes with justice as a 10% increase on 5 seconds will be the same(With rounding up) as a 5% increase and the 10 point traits in virtues aren't fantastic.

The Solo-Boon Guardian (Fun Build/Janky/Allrounder)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAW8dlcg67GFSLEf4ES2jVCBTQsCY01DHiiYIA;TQAquMeJ8y1F

  • Description: This is a fun build for questing, exploring and much more. Its a silly build, but you should enjoy it anyway. It revolves around giving you as much boon up time as humanely possible, and ensuring you have swiftness and protection when you need it. You can have almost 100% swiftness uptime if you're smart about it.

  • Stats/Runes: Stats are mostly healing/vit/tough again, mix and match as appropriate, however when it comes to runes you're going to have a strange hodge-podge. 2x Superior Water, 2x Superior Monk and 2x Major Water. Why? Well thats 40% Additional boon duration on top of your 30% from traits.

  • Pros: Using retreat gives you 34 seconds of swiftness. Save yourselves gives you a good 17 seconds of nearly every buff! Hold the line will give you plenty of extra protection and regen, not to mention every time you use your virtues you get additional boons.(Might/regen/protection, tonnes of retaliation and stability! Lots of condition removal, and your dps? Surprisingly huge. The 25 points in virtues increases your damage significantly. Not to mention the long term Fury, and using staff's empower will give you a lot of might. Hell, using the symbol of swiftness almost has a 100% Swiftness uptime. (Please note that the symbol does not stack, to get the most benefit you have to run through it and THEN use retreat/saveyourself)

  • Cons: It is a really janky build. Its all about optimising your own buff uptime. It can be semi useful in a group situation, but what you do really relies upon your weapon choice. This is a fun build, don't expect the world with it, though it can be hellishly fun in dungeons with a hammer/staff.

  • Weapon Choice: This is an odd build because you can really mix and match for the best results. Staff is pretty much a must, after that pick what makes you happy/choose for whatever you are doing. Greatsword means lots of retaliation is up, not to mention lots of damage and maneoverability. Hammer for lots of protection(The auto attack is a great source of (Now) long lasting protection). Mace/Shield for lots of protection/regen. Find what suits you.

The Boonstacker Guardian (Alternative to solo-boon)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAW8dlcg67GFSLEf4ESmiVCBxUgRw31DHiiYIA;TQAquMeJ8y1F

  • Description: Similar to the above guardian except that it you lose a few seconds on your boons(Not a huge deal, trust me.)) and gain the ability to give might to your allies on each critical hit (With fury from save yourself, this is far more often than you might think). A very good alternative if you're running in a group. Very supportive, and your group should love you. You could even go with a 2x rune of rage or other alternative boon buffer( The protection one is fantastic, the regen one is also great with mace/focus).

The Tranquil Guardian (Newbie Friendly/sPvP/Selfish dungeoning)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRApe7dlcgaDXGSNEm4EhVhBi9gjecjXPgYEbIA;TYAqdM7I2xujbH5OA

  • Description: This build focuses on meditations. Its pretty basic, and easy for newbies to learn how to use all their skills off cooldown. Most guardians probably run this build at some point because it looks so good on paper. I don't recommend it for most because it is incredibly -selfish-. All of your abilities do good things for you, but not much for your team.
  • Stats/Runes: Toughness, healing mostly. Thats the important part. Also all earth runes. Some tough/vit to round it out.

  • Pros: Incredibly easy to keep yourself alive, you'll feel pretty invincible, especially in sPvP. Lots of self heals, lots of condition removal. Decent damage. This works well in PvP as well it is an EXCELLENT capper build. Stand on the capping point and it takes upwards of 3 people to take you down.

  • Cons: Incredibly easy to get stuck into this role and think you are doing Well. Yes, you are doing well, you're just not doing good.(Think superman). You don't offer much to the team. (Except as a capper in pvp)

The Burning Guardian (PvP, Solo play)

Beserker Focus: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsf7dlcgqCnFyvDm4Eh1jAKQ/hpAjw/SBFdIA;TwAg0CnowxgjAHLOOck4sIYQwmgJBA

More HP: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsf7dlcgqCnFyvDm4Eh1jAKQ/hpAjw/SBFdIA;TwAA2CnowxgjAHLOOck4sIYQwmgJBA

  • Description: My own take on the popular burning builds. You are still supporting through shouts though it is slightly more 'selfish', with a greater desire to deal out damage. This isn't your momma's burning build. Please note you can swap out tome of courage for renewed focus to get a bit more out of your virtues, and more burning uptime. You can also swap out stand your ground for purging/judges intervention

  • Pros: 84% Chance to crit(The +15% 1h weapon does not show in your stats page), with 60% crit damage, that stacks might on each crit? Still maintaining 16k-22k+hp, a wide variety of blinds, and lots of chances to inflict burning. Sound good? I hope so. Im not a fan of glass cannon builds, but this somehow manages to remain stable, and actually pretty tanky, especially if you start to stack more hp/toughness. Don't stack healing power. The 10% extra damage on burning victims also helps, be sure to ensure your enemies are on fire.

  • Cons: Fairly selfish. Fairly Weak to condition damage, lower health pool unless you sacrifice precision(Lets be honest, you can sacrifice some precision. anything over 50% crit is good, should read as 35% base.). Not as effective in group situations, pretty good in spvp, though i'd go for more hp less beserker gear.

The Blazing Guardian (Burning Guardian Variant)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsf7dlcgqCnFyvDmIFh1jAiQ/VVIeYKwI8vKQRA;TwAA2CnowxgjAHLOOck4sIYQwmgJBA

  • Description: This variant is the one I prefer for PvP. Focuses more on damage, and while it has less crit damage it has the lovely 10% increased damage to burning enemies trait. Not to mention your incredibly high crit rate, Its very rare to -not- see a critical hit. You could even swap out 5% crit chance for 10% burning duration, no problem!

The Blunt Guardian (Dungeons/Solo/PVP)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAS5flYg67WGSOEf4EhNDBGw6DxD7hG94HB;TwAA1Cto2xsjYH7Oudk7s6YIwWgJDA

  • Description: This build is my own take on the popular hammer build going about right now. It is incredibly tanky, hits hard and is really good in dungeons(And ok in pvp. It falls short due to relying on not moving very much). It revolves around keeping up burns on your target, and using the hammer/mace symbols to keep yourself alive.

  • Pros: You pretty much have 100% uptime on protection. You have a lot of hp too. Your damage? Fantastic. As soon as a burn is up they take 20% Additional damage, and you can keep up burns pretty much nonstop with the right rotation of skills. When you run out of virtues, your elite is on cd, and so are your burning skills you can swap to mace(Or scepter if you want ranged)/torch and put up a constant burning with 4. Your symbol on mace is also very much increased by your traits, and you will heal a -lot-. Not to mention every time you have a symbol up, you will heal yourself and anyone who stands in it. Win, win! This is a fairly tanky build but incredibly immobile. Superior earth runes are also fantastic and give you more protection uptime.

  • Cons: It is incredibly immobile. To be optimum you need to be fighting something that doesnt move, or doesn't move much. You don't have much lee-way with movement. Also you hit pretty damn slowly. You don't offer a huge amount to a group, HOWEVER, if the group has a lot of melee, you are a godsend. (Please note it doesn't take much to turn this into a defensive build, look for it below.)

The Brick Wall Guardian (Blunt Guardian Variant)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAS5dlYgyCXGyvDfIFRuAbBYP0I8/41DHSRGC;TwAA1Cto2xsjYH7Oudk7sIYIwWgJDA

  • Description: A more defensive based version of the blunt guardian, choosing to focus on staying alive and buffing team mates, while sticking in the thick of combat. Much more toughness, and some might stacking. You wont stack it overly quickly, but it should be a near constant buff, especially with save yourself. Your symbols will not only keep your friends alive, but you as well. This is a MUCH better dungeon running and group event build, but suffers heavily on the damage side of things.



» Edited on: 2012-10-21 17:33:22



» Edited on: 2012-10-21 17:33:43

Reason:


This site is a Gaiscioch Production with the support of the Sanctum of Rall server community. Site Produced by Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley [Foghladha.2506].
This site was built to commemorate and honor the life of Roger "Oldroar" Rall. It is open to the community but under constant moderation. Any use of this site which is deemed unbecoming of an honorable community member is strictly prohibited. No trolling, no trash talking, no bashing, no swearing. Please keep this site open, friendly and welcoming to all members of the Sanctum of Rall server community.

The contents of this site are Copyright © 2012-2024 by: Benjamin Foley. All Rights Reserved