3 replies to this topic

[BrazilTheHue]

I no longer focus purely on surviving and being a "tank," because you can mitigate an unbelievable amount of damage by blocking attacks and dodging. If you are able to dodge and time blocks well, you don't really need much HP or armor and can focus on outputting more damage. If you aren't good at dodging and blocking, the best way (in my opinion), is to put yourself into a situation that will force you to learn those mechanics, IE soloing Giganticus Lupicus in Arah. If that sounds like too much, just go out and find some champions in a medium level zone and try your hand at soloing it with melee weapons. On one final note, be sure to buy Master Maintenance Oils and Omnomberry Pies for lifesteal and extra Crit chance. If you can't afford those particular consumables, you can buy lower-tier versions like Mixed Berry Pies.


Click through the spoilers to see the different sections.


Armor and Such

Spoiler

Here is a list of the armor, runes, trinkets, and weapon(s) I use:

• Knight's Helmet, Chest, and Leggings.

• Berserker's Shoulder's, Gloves, and Boots

• Berserker's Greatsword w/ Superior Sigil of Accuracy

• Berserker's Hammer w/ Superior Sigil of Accuracy

• Berserker's Scepter w/ Superior Sigil of Accuracy

• Berserker's Focus w/ Superior Sigil of Force

• Berserker's Staff w/ Superior Sigil of Accuracy

• 6 Superior Rune of the Soldier

• Ascended Berserker's Amulet and Rings

• Ascended Soldier's Back piece

• Knight's Orichalcum Earrings w/ Exquisite Ruby Jewels

Explanation of Traits

Spoiler

These are the traits that I use:

• 30 into Valor. Traits V, VI, and XI. Purity for passive condition removal, Retributive Armor for extra Crit chance, and Altruistic Healing for healing with Empowering Might in Honor / other means of giving boons like Shouts.

• 30 into Honor. Traits II, VIII, and IX. Superior Aria for cooldown on Shouts, Empowering Might for Might stacks on Crit (this affects your whole party, and I believe has a 1 second cooldown). Two-Handed Mastery for reduced cooldown on Hammer and Greatsword skills.

• 10 in Virtues. V or VI depending on the situation. If you plan on doing fractals or more challenging dungeons like Arah, you'll need Master of Consecrations for the reduced cooldown and extended duration on Wall of Reflect and Sanctuary. If you need extended duration on Shield of the Avenger (for Old Tom in the Harpy fractal, for example), switch the traits out.

Explanation of Skills

Spoiler

These are the Skills that I use:

• Shelter. 2 seconds of blocking and no cast time is, in my opinion, better than anything any other healing skill offers.

• “Retreat.” Swiftness and Aegis. Use it at all times.

• “Hold the Line.” Protection, Regen, and a fairly short cooldown.

• “Stand Your Ground.” Mainly for Stability and the Stun-break.

• Wall of Reflect. Used for reflection in Fractals and some of the named dungeons. With Master of Consecrations, you can cast Wall, and when the cooldown reaches 22 seconds, cast Shield. once your shield expires, you will be able to cast Wall again, and if you have another Guardian, maintain permanent reflection if you rotate this set with them. Keep in mind that the Shield can be destroyed if it takes too much damage, but in most cases, you will be fine.

• Sanctuary. Very nice to have in the Dredge fractal. The cooldown in quite long, but definitely worth it if you are getting overwhelmed.

• "Save Yourselves." I only use this skill in Arah, specifically for Giganticus Lupicis. It is a Stun-break, along with a Boon machine, and will help you out if you miss a dodge and get knocked down. It also provides a block, so keep that in mind and use it only when you need to. The group I do Arah with melee's Lupicus, so it requires certain skills ("Save Yourselves," "Stand Your Ground," Wall of Reflect).

• Elite Skill: Renewed Focus. Recharge your Virtues and invulnerability for 3 seconds. If you need to channel this one, use your virtues during the 3 seconds it is up so that they all come back on passive when it finishes. This also includes your Aegis passive, which will be up when the skill finishes.

Weapons

Spoiler

These are the Weapons I use:

• Greatsword. Primarily for Binding Blades and grouping up mobs and DPS.

• Hammer. Comparable DPS to Greatsword, granted the slow attacks seem to make everyone hate it. This weapons also seems to have a sort of learning curve, because positioning your Ring of Warding and getting into position to snare a group of mobs takes a good bit of practice. Also keep in mind that every 3rd autoattack create a symbol of Protection, and if your entire party is in melee range, then they will all benefit (and Altruistic Healing will heal you). However, don't get into the habit of AFK tanking mobs with hammer, because it will make you a very lazy player.

• Staff. I really only use this weapon for clearing out Volatile Blossoms and aggroing Wraiths at the end of Arah path 3. The Swiftness symbol is great for running, for overall Staff doesn't offer anything in terms of DPS and the Might it provides has a low duration, not to mention any Warriors should be able to stack might by themselves.
  
• Scepter / Focus. This is my primary ranged

Armor and Weapon Acquisition

Spoiler

• Berserker's weapons and armor can be purchased with CoE, Arah, or CoF tokens. CoF tokens are quite easy to get, so that is probably the best way to go about it.

• Knight's weapons and armor can be purchased with SE and Arah tokens, unless you want to buy it from the Trading Post. I get all of my armor by means of dungeons, but that isn't possible for everyone.

• If you need Ascended gear, you'll need to grind Fractals over and over, and it can be quite irritating. If you don't care about Ascended gear, you can craft trinkets or buy them from the Trading Post.

Contact Me and Other Things.

Spoiler

My Guardian's name, as you may have read, is Brazil The Hue. If you have any questions about my guide, find any errors that I may have overlooked, or are pissed off that it's not up-to-date enough, feel free to Whisper me or send me a message letting me know. Just be sure that you let me know that you came from my guide, so that I have an idea as to what you want to talk about. Also, if you need help / want to do a dungeon, feel free to invite me. I love dungeons very much, and I will usually drop whatever I'm doing if I get an invite from someone.

If you are interested in applying to my guild, you can visit http://www.dtguilds.com/home for more information. We pride ourselves in speed clearing dungeons and being as efficient as possible, so if that sounds like something you would enjoy and could contribute to, feel free to apply.

If you are interested in learning about dungeons and seeing what DPS optimized builds can do, you can check out Strife's Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/strife025

Edited by BrazilTheHue, 18 February 2013 - 04:07 PM.

[Zannonad]

The build looks good but question how is your dps, I had my guardian set a similar way and I notice the damage was just not there. I was taking on full aggro and I was not doing enough damage.  

Let me know.

This is my build now http://gw2skills.net...ZJyymlLLZWLQGCA

I use it for almost anything including WvWvW even tho scepters skills are just tooooooooo slow.

[SpelignErrir]

No staff?

You should move 10 points from radiance or something into valor for Altruistic healing. Then Staff 4 becomes a healing signet that grants 12 stacks of might to yourself and your team on a lower cooldown, just with a much longer cast time, not to mention you're providing dps support, which would be important because this build seems to be lacking in it. Also, helps survivability even more if you need it, 1k heal per pulse.

[BrazilTheHue]

I was running through Arah Explorable today and I was pulling off some 4k hits at the end of my Whirling Wrath, but I don't really focus on doing as much damage as possible. My style of play is centered around being durable enough to draw aggro and provide condition removal for people I'm playing with. From what I can gather from your stats, you seem to be sacrificing a lot of durability for a higher damage output, and I never found a build like that to be optimal, especially when doing dungeons. Some people feel that killing mobs faster results in a higher rate of survival, but if you get overrun by a group of undead in Orr, a little bit of extra damage isn't going to help you near as much as higher armor and vitality will. I've been meaning to try out a new build based on doing loads of damage while still maintaining survivability, but I haven't had time to test it properly, and I'm still not sure that it would be beneficial to anything other than solo farming. If you really feel that a high damage output suits you, you probably want to stick to a scepter or staff and kite enemies around.

I guess to simplify, my damage output isn't crazy high, but I didn't design it to be. It's solid enough to handle a group of mobs on my own in Orr, but if you are looking to kill 5000 enemies in 3 seconds, this build probably won't suit you.