13 replies to this topic

[BeastmodeGM]

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I call it The Boon Healing Guardian. Essentially you will be using as many boons as possible which will buff allies while healing yourself in the process. This build could have high survivability and provide exceptional support especially in dungeon groups.  As with all professions in Guild Wars 2 your weapon sets and traits determine the type of build you create.

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To achieve boon healing the first thing you will need to do is pick up Altruistic Healing which is in the Valor trait line. Choosing this trait will provide automatic heals for yourself every time you apply a boon to your allies. Pretty nifty ain’t it? Especially since we have a total of eight boons from our abilities we chose earlier. Next we will focus on shield traits and pick up Honorable Shield and Defender’s Shield which reduces shield skill cooldowns by 20% and grants an extra 90 toughness respectively. They are both also in the Valor trait line.

Check Out the Full Build Here

Let me know what you think of the build and if you have any thoughts or ideas on improving it!

[BeastmodeGM]

Tested this build out this weekend and seems very viable in the early levels of PvP. Works great 1v1 and definitely has great survivability against multiple foes. I think this build will be essential to 5 man teams as well as PVE. Will continue to test and tweak the build in the future.

[RamzaBehoulve]

It's not bad, but it's hard countered by a shut down Mesmer or anything like it in my opinion and it's heavily dependant on your team mates, meaning you can almost do nothing alone. You might survive 1v1 without trouble, but I doubt your ennemy is dying either.

That's what I've come to dislike most as guardian, be it offensive or support, you can't really do anything well alone and I'm hesitating switching to Warrior as main because of that. Might also be because I'm growing bored after so many betas with guardian though.

Edited by RamzaBehoulve, 30 April 2012 - 10:20 AM.

[Calmdown]

RamzaBehoulve, on 30 April 2012 - 10:16 AM, said:

It's not bad, but it's hard countered by a shut down Mesmer or anything like it in my opinion and it's heavily dependant on your team mates, meaning you can almost do nothing alone. You might survive 1v1 without trouble, but I doubt your ennemy is dying either.

That's what I've come to dislike most as guardian, be it offensive or support, you can't really do anything well alone and I'm hesitating switching to Warrior as main because of that. Might also be because I'm growing bored after so many betas with guardian though.

Guardian is completely team dependant. Lack of effective range, lack of damage, and lack of survivability unless you build *completely* for survivability. It cant deal damage as well as keep itself alive as most classes can. It's wholly focused on group support, not by design but by virtue (no pun intended) of its traits all being completely unselfish.

No doubt people will argue with this and say "lol, I tanked a whole team myself for 5 minutes" or "lol I spank people in 1v1s all the time"; you can do that with any class, with your eyes closed, when playing against the noobs that make up the majority of PvPers. Against good opponents, the weaknesses of the Guardian all become heavily apparent.

Even when you do have friends to support - which is the Guardian's favoured role - you have to ask yourself, would you not be contributing more as a Necro debuffing and dealing damage at the same time, or a Necro CCing with damage, or even just a straight DPS class contributing more to kills? I think you would.

Guardian needs a lot of work imho. Which is a shame, because I really wanted to play one.

[ZCKS]

Eh the main problem I saw with guardians during the betas was this.

You can either have 1 of 2 things

1: Insane self survivability & defensive group utility
or
2: Very low self survivability with moderate damage (that was highly consisted of burn damage & thus had little burst) & moderate-high group utility.

The first is alright if you want to play a purely defensive build that is only good for supporting a team, the second was also quite good in a team settng but could be killed quite easily with burst damage.

The problem with both however was that they were only really effective in group settings & if you take them out of a group & they become sub par compared to anyone else.

As I have said in other threads I'm seriously howing they lower the defensive potential & group defensive utility potential the profession has at base then increase what can be gained (especially offensive potential) via traits, gear & ability talents.
I say this because it would allow more choice in how the individual can play but do it in a way that can easily be balanced.

[Magerno]

RamzaBehoulve, on 30 April 2012 - 10:16 AM, said:

That's what I've come to dislike most as guardian, be it offensive or support, you can't really do anything well alone and I'm hesitating switching to Warrior as main because of that. Might also be because I'm growing bored after so many betas with guardian though.

I do agree with the fact that they are not an offensive powerhouse but I think you are underestimating their utility. They have a ton of damage mitigation with the mace, shield combo and that is only increased by your trait choices. Guardians are going to play a huge role in this game in PVP and PVE. They are great at creating space and splitting up mobs. I have a feeling you are going to wish you had one with you once you play more and get into explorable dungeons.

[RamzaBehoulve]

Magerno, on 30 April 2012 - 02:06 PM, said:

I do agree with the fact that they are not an offensive powerhouse but I think you are underestimating their utility. They have a ton of damage mitigation with the mace, shield combo and that is only increased by your trait choices. Guardians are going to play a huge role in this game in PVP and PVE. They are great at creating space and splitting up mobs. I have a feeling you are going to wish you had one with you once you play more and get into explorable dungeons.

I have over 100h played with Guardian, playing more isn't going to teach me much about his utility. That's not the issue. I specifically stated I had a grip with its solo capabilities in PvP. PvE is fine and probably one of the best professions.

No matter what you try, you are very heavily dependent on your team in PvP. That's fine in organised PvP with teammates you can communicate with, but if you go in a pub game, it's going to be hell for guardian. For those playing DOTA, Guardian is akin to Omniknight. That's what this week-end taught me. Previously in closed Beta, you had mainly skilled people, not complete beginners and strangers doing whatever they feel like (understand mostly jumping in alone 3v1) in SPvP, or at least it was much less prevalent.

Then again, I can simply play Guardian as main and just make a Warrior for non-serious PvP. Regardless, I'll give my warning now. If you plan on doing mostly pub games in SPvP, stay the hell away from Guardian.

Edited by RamzaBehoulve, 30 April 2012 - 02:21 PM.

[Giga Strike]

Looks a lot like something I was working on before the beta.  Mine focused a lot more on virtues though.

[blakdoxa]

Boon Guardians

Direct damage
Conditions

Wish the secondary attributes for Valor and Honor were switched... It would make this all but awesome.

[Dirame]

ZCKS, on 30 April 2012 - 12:11 PM, said:

Eh the main problem I saw with guardians during the betas was this.

You can either have 1 of 2 things

1: Insane self survivability & defensive group utility
or
2: Very low self survivability with moderate damage (that was highly consisted of burn damage & thus had little burst) & moderate-high group utility.

The first is alright if you want to play a purely defensive build that is only good for supporting a team, the second was also quite good in a team settng but could be killed quite easily with burst damage.

The problem with both however was that they were only really effective in group settings & if you take them out of a group & they become sub par compared to anyone else.

As I have said in other threads I'm seriously howing they lower the defensive potential & group defensive utility potential the profession has at base then increase what can be gained (especially offensive potential) via traits, gear & ability talents.
I say this because it would allow more choice in how the individual can play but do it in a way that can easily be balanced.

One thing I noticed about Guardians is, I could have both. The only thing I had to decide was, Crits or power...hmmmm... still deciding

[Razip]

I was wondering, when you use martyr, do you literally take the conditions on to yourself and keep them? because I was thinking of using martyr followed by contemplation of purity as a combo to get rid of conditions and mega buff myself.

[Drekor]

Redgit, on 01 May 2012 - 03:49 PM, said:

I was wondering, when you use martyr, do you literally take the conditions on to yourself and keep them? because I was thinking of using martyr followed by contemplation of purity as a combo to get rid of conditions and mega buff myself.

Yes you actually take all the conditions. Using the ability without contemplation of purity is actually near sucidal as getting every condition including 25 stacks of vuln and bleed is not a pleasant way to die.

[Razip]

Ah k cool, that's what I'll be doing then thanks

[toth]

Note: I'm not very good at theory crafting, and I didn't play too much guardian this weekend, even though I will main it at launch.

This is what I came up with. Very similar to your build.

Changes are highlighted in bold.

Weapons: Mace/Shield

Healing/Utility/Elite
-Healing Breeze ( AoE cone heal, and heal yourself),
-Hold the line!
-Retreat!
-Stand your ground! ( I'd prefer this, especially in a PvP setting.)
- Tome of courage

And for my offhand I'd choose staff. Since we can take advantage of active weapon switching, Matyr is just amazing to have. Orb of light, is a nice AoE heal, and Symbol of Swiftness is another AoE boon.

I wouldn't tweak your traits though.


EDIT:

Drekor, on 01 May 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

Yes you actually take all the conditions. [for matyr]

If this is true, I'd have to switch out Stand your ground! With Contemplation of Purity. Could we get a source for this? I didn't try it out in the beta.

Edited by toth, 02 May 2012 - 01:27 AM.