12 replies to this topic

[JaxSilven]

-- Introduction --

Hey guys I'm Silven, I've dedicated myself to mainly playing offensive Guardian builds in tPvP and have a lot of interesting and viable builds to show you!

You may know me from my previous thread: http://www.guildwars...nd-tournaments/

The focus of this build is two main things;

• Being very offensive through means of high damage and high control
  
• Having a high survivability so that you're not a liability on your team!

This build has a lot of focus on stacking tons of might to easily pass 4k Attack, which although isn't always impressive with other builds, the hammer can hit very high with Mighty Blow!
I'll finish writing this all up later, here's the build!

-- Build --

Traits

• Zeal: 10 - II
  
• Radiance: 15 - II
  
• Valor: 30 - I, V, XII
  
• Honour: 10 - II
  
• Virtues: 5

Armour
Soldier's Amulet with Soldier Jewel
Strength Runes

Utility Skills

• Signet of Resolve
  
• Smite Condition
  
• Judge's Intervention
  
• "Stand Your Ground!"
  
• Renewed Focus

Weapons

• Hammer (Battle)
  
• Staff (Bloodlust)

Optionals

• Valor X > Valor V
  Not as strong in this build compared to others, but still a lot of damage.
  
• Honour II > Zeal II
  Shout recharge is excellent support while sacrificing a lot of damage, in team fights not as important. IX and 25 points

• Contemplation of Purity > "Stand Your Ground!"
  The ability to remove covered poison, bleeding or immob instantly is amazing (especially the poison to heal). Remember to drop Honour II for Radiance
  
• Hammer of Wisdom > "Stand Your Ground!"
  Knockdown with 2.5k extra damage on your spike (more compact than bane but more predictable, also consider Virtue V or Zeal VI) and control!
  
• Tome of Courage > Renewed Focus
  Use ToC with SYG, an amazing support skill!

• Honour 10 points > Radiance 25 points
  Get V or IX, this is for a lot of extra damage but you lose your recharge on SYG

Here it is on a build creator:
http://www.gw2build....0.10.15.30.10.5

Stack that Might!

Feel free to comment, really want constructive criticism and I will post the rest of the guide later ^^

Edited by JaxSilven, 13 October 2012 - 08:14 AM.

[Ezra]

Bloodlust Runes have been fixed and only add +10 Power per stack now.

[Fonsie]

Hammer is no viable offensive weapon as its DPS is just too low. ;<

[JaxSilven]

Fonsie, on 13 October 2012 - 10:53 AM, said:

Hammer is no viable offensive weapon as its DPS is just too low. ;<

No offence, but you may want to try it out, seeing as the hits are quite high even vs high armoured targets. Not to mention the high level of control, you can easily knock their heal, it's just using your control correctly to increase your effective damage output much higher.
Might Blow can hit 4k on high armour targets and 6.5k on other players. Plus burning etc, have you actually tried the build?

[Fonsie]

JaxSilven, on 13 October 2012 - 11:24 AM, said:

No offence, but you may want to try it out, seeing as the hits are quite high even vs high armoured targets. Not to mention the high level of control, you can easily knock their heal, it's just using your control correctly to increase your effective damage output much higher.
Might Blow can hit 4k on high armour targets and 6.5k on other players. Plus burning etc, have you actually tried the build?

Yes i tested 2h Hammer several times. You are correct, the damage PER HIT is pretty high and therefore it kinda tricks people to think the damage is pretty damn good. But actually, the DAMAGE OVER TIME is pretty bad compared to 1h Sword for example...

I think 2h Hammer is really good, but not for offensive...

[JaxSilven]

I need to post some vids, it's not the DPS which it shines in, but with really high hits it doesn't have LOW DPS.
It has extremely high pressure, by hitting high and then interrupting heals and being able to just keep them off cap points. This can make your enemy panic and generally the interrupt on the heal will force them off a cap point.
It's definitely strong for offense.

[ocirne23]

Heya silven, I know you from gw1 .

Anyways, the hammer does decent damage, but the big downside is that it's auto attack chain is incredibly slow and the final hit is very easy to dodge. Mighty blow is also too easy to avoid which doen't make the hammer a very popular weapon for offensive oriented builds. The hammer also doesn't seem to scale as well with Power as other weapons.

I personally run something like this:
http://www.gw2build....0.0.10.20.30.10
(With the Hammer Chill trait).

Sigil of Intelligence is really nice on a hammer, swap > critical Mighty Blow + 50% chance 4 second chill. If you do that after Empower you will still hit for around 3k+ damage. It's more of a support/cc build but one that still has enough DPS to force people off capture points; Larger Symbols and 20% CDR on all skills with perma AoE retaliation should add more pressure than 500 more power. Dodge heals for 1227, regen for 267, resolve for 150, retaliation hits for 319.

If you look at the goal your build is trying to accomplish instead of just maxing damage on a weapon not very suited for that role, you can make much more effective builds.

Edited by ocirne23, 14 October 2012 - 06:39 PM.

[Rendar]

ocirne23, on 14 October 2012 - 06:38 PM, said:

I personally run something like this:
http://www.gw2build....0.0.10.20.30.10
(With the Hammer Chill trait).

I think you might have posted the wrong build.  Theres no hammer chill trait and you traited for extra toughness with shield, but dont use a shield at all.

[ocirne23]

Rendar, on 15 October 2012 - 02:04 AM, said:

I think you might have posted the wrong build.  Theres no hammer chill trait and you traited for extra toughness with shield, but dont use a shield at all.

Because the skill calc didn't have that trait. I picked the trait that was removed instead and added "(With the Hammer Chill trait)" below the link, with the assumption that people would understand that it would replace the removed shield trait.

[Deyadissa]

JaxSilven, on 13 October 2012 - 11:24 AM, said:

No offence, but you may want to try it out, seeing as the hits are quite high even vs high armoured targets. Not to mention the high level of control, you can easily knock their heal, it's just using your control correctly to increase your effective damage output much higher.
Might Blow can hit 4k on high armour targets and 6.5k on other players. Plus burning etc, have you actually tried the build?

While its great you are trying to make a build to help the community, hammer is really not a good choice overall. Simply put, the staff has better utility and damage.

You'll notice no guardians are runnin hammer in tournaments

[cR4zYn]

Deyadissa, on 15 October 2012 - 11:23 PM, said:

While its great you are trying to make a build to help the community, hammer is really not a good choice overall. Simply put, the staff has better utility and damage.

You'll notice no guardians are runnin hammer in tournaments

Hmm... lately, as point defenders, all I see are hammer Guards (in Guard domain that is). I also personally run hammer one aswell. However there is still option to carry staff around with you and put it in hands once you decide situation in front of you might use some better support.

Imo staff has better support, but hammer's area denial and some decent supportive DPS and CCs are making up for it.

[Deyadissa]

cR4zYn, on 16 October 2012 - 12:49 AM, said:

Hmm... lately, as point defenders, all I see are hammer Guards (in Guard domain that is). I also personally run hammer one aswell. However there is still option to carry staff around with you and put it in hands once you decide situation in front of you might use some better support.

Imo staff has better support, but hammer's area denial and some decent supportive DPS and CCs are making up for it.

The only time I see a guardian run hammer is in battle of kylo. I play a ton of tournaments and I rarely are hammer used, personally I fin the weapon quite weak

Edited by Deyadissa, 16 October 2012 - 01:28 AM.

[JaxSilven]

Deyadissa, on 15 October 2012 - 11:23 PM, said:

While its great you are trying to make a build to help the community, hammer is really not a good choice overall. Simply put, the staff has better utility and damage.

You'll notice no guardians are runnin hammer in tournaments

Actually I was challenged to make a good offensive hammer build by a friend and this is the best I could come up with. And I know quite a few people who run hammer, mainly because of protection and the knockdown can win games from hitting heals, reses and stomps.

I rarely run it myself, except when bored, I run mainly the build I posted here: http://www.guildwars...nd-tournaments/