9 replies to this topic

[MrUUURP]

I'm looking for a guardian solo build that I can use to level up with until 80. I know there's different ideas but I'm mainly looking for survivability and some decent damage. I don't play with a lot of people, so that's why I'm asking for a solo build. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

[Snarvid]

Join a guild.

Guardians have some of the best support in the game and they are able to support very effectively while still following other roles.  While certainly playable solo, they won't bring their full potential to the solo experience.  Also, speaking from experience as someone who went into dungeons at 35 and is still pretty bad at them at 49, you're going to be really bad for a while once you start playing in dungeons.  Why wait until 80 and have tons of bad habits to overcome?

For pure overland DPS, you can do well with Radiance 15 Virtue 5 and a commitment to Valor Meditation perks.

Edited by Snarvid, 17 November 2012 - 11:26 PM.

[AEnesidem]

^bull-shit

to level, the guardian is one of the best solo classes. For leveling the greatsword is perfect, and even later in dungeons it will be one of the best choices of weapons to go with. It has the highest damage output and can tag alot of mobs for extra exp and loot. at early levels you can focus on offensive abilities, till about lvl 30 maybe or even 40 you can use spirit weapons. After that it would probably best if you focus on toughness and vitality(optional). For example i have 5 in radiance, 30 in the toughness tree and 30 in the vitality tree. Its IMO one of the best builds because it's extremely flexible. To solo you can put on meditation traits, and use meditation skills to tagg more mobs and heal constantly. In dungeons you can put on altruistic healing and shouts to be an unbeatable tank. The build is also good in WvW so that's a nice bonus.

so for soloing:
-Offensive stats and GS for low leveleling
-toughness and optionally vitality for higher level soloing, again with GS or hammer (but i like GS way more)
-Start using meditation skills in PvE as soon as you unlock the meditation healing trait (which heals you every time you use a meditation)

hope that helped : ) this is ofcourse not the only way of doing it. But this is what i did to level my guardian and i had no problems at all and leveled it extremely fast.

[Absintheminded]

BTW there's a topic like this posted at least once a week... Try skimming through the titles and finding what you need, I guarantee you will find what you need and in most cases people are saying the same thing. A pretty standard trait-set is 15 Radiance 5 Virtues, and normally people pick up Signet Mastery for Signet of Resolve. From there many people like Honor or Valor, as both can contribute to survivability and damage. 2H Mastery, shouts, meditations, etc.

[Snarvid]

Not bullshit. Shouts, Consecrations, Wards, Active Virtues, Symbols (esp for cleansing bolts), Spirit Bow and Shield, Mighty Blow blast finishing, Staff 2&4, and all the traits that buff these are significantly better when they are used in a five man team than solo. Just because a Guardian is solo viable and much  easier to solo than,say, an Ele, doesn't mean you're not selling short one of their big strengths if you decide to go solo, and the learning curve will still be there waiting for you when you discover that a DPS warrior is better at your traditional solo playstyle in a dungeon run.

[jpg1]

I have a summary of the best builds I've come across this forums right here. They are very helpful.

You don't have to join a guild and play support. I don't think Guardians shine less when they don't do support. I think all the builds in that topic can be used to go solo, even the support builds. It will be slower but it can be done.

There's always the option to try a few things, which what I highly encourage above reading build topics or suggestions.

[AEnesidem]

Snarvid, on 19 November 2012 - 04:29 AM, said:

Not bullshit. Shouts, Consecrations, Wards, Active Virtues, Symbols (esp for cleansing bolts), Spirit Bow and Shield, Mighty Blow blast finishing, Staff 2&4, and all the traits that buff these are significantly better when they are used in a five man team than solo. Just because a Guardian is solo viable and much  easier to solo than,say, an Ele, doesn't mean you're not selling short one of their big strengths if you decide to go solo, and the learning curve will still be there waiting for you when you discover that a DPS warrior is better at your traditional solo playstyle in a dungeon run.

but that wasn't what he asked for. He isn't playing with a lot of folks and he wants to level. I think almost everyone levels on its own and the guardian is perfect for that.
And btw i do something completely different than warriors. Warriors dish a lot of damage. While my goal is to keep all aggro on me and tank the damage while the rest nukes the mobs. Also i decided to use a more solo build in dungeons because when you are in a bad team you are better off doing half of the job on your own than trying to support bad players. And i must say that there is a gigantic difference when i take my guardian or my mesmer in dungeons. When i take my guardian in a dungeon the team is sure to take a lot less aggro and survive in more difficult areas. It makes dungeons so much more easier. And i'm not doing anything special, just rushing in with GS pulling everything to me and popping shouts to survive.
so it's quite some bullshit. Since either you have a good team not really needing your support, or a bad team which doesn't put your support to good use.
at least that is my opinion, and it has worked fine, it's not like dungeons are hard.

Edited by AEnesidem, 19 November 2012 - 01:49 PM.

[Snarvid]

jpg1, on 19 November 2012 - 08:15 AM, said:

I have a summary of the best builds I've come across this forums right here. They are very helpful.

You don't have to join a guild and play support. I don't think Guardians shine less when they don't do support. I think all the builds in that topic can be used to go solo, even the support builds. It will be slower but it can be done.

There's always the option to try a few things, which what I highly encourage above reading build topics or suggestions.

To be clear, I'm not trying to recreate the trinity and say anyone has to spec Guardians for support as their main / only role.  However, 1/2 of the builds you link use AH to be tanky via support, and AH generally works x2-5 better when there are allies to be altruistic towards (with obvious exceptions like the self-buffs of Vigorous Precision or Save Yourselves, although the latter has a solid team support role independent of AH).   One of the remaining 2 builds you link is explicitly identified as a support build.  The last one is Staff DPS for PvE and WvW, which provides a very solid build out of the mainstream but does have a number of build decisions driven by WvW contraints which may not be as present in a pure PvE build (such as an overall assessment of Line of Warding as the worst skill in the game where I have found warding to be a significant contribution to dungeon running).

You cannot spec Guardians out of their class feature, and even with no traits invested the Virtues play better actively with others than passively on your own.  Whether that counts as solo "shine" or lack thereof depends on your definition, I suppose.

[Snarvid]

AEnesidem, on 19 November 2012 - 01:46 PM, said:

but that wasn't what he asked for. He isn't playing with a lot of folks and he wants to level. I think almost everyone levels on its own and the guardian is perfect for that.
And btw i do something completely different than warriors. Warriors dish a lot of damage. While my goal is to keep all aggro on me and tank the damage while the rest nukes the mobs. Also i decided to use a more solo build in dungeons because when you are in a bad team you are better off doing half of the job on your own than trying to support bad players. And i must say that there is a gigantic difference when i take my guardian or my mesmer in dungeons. When i take my guardian in a dungeon the team is sure to take a lot less aggro and survive in more difficult areas. It makes dungeons so much more easier. And i'm not doing anything special, just rushing in with GS pulling everything to me and popping shouts to survive.
so it's quite some bullshit. Since either you have a good team not really needing your support, or a bad team which doesn't put your support to good use.
at least that is my opinion, and it has worked fine, it's not like dungeons are hard.

He asked for any suggestions.  I gave him one.

So your idea is to keep aggro on you while the rest of the group nukes mobs, which you consider a solo build, which has to be done because PUGs are variable quality and you can't rely on others to do the job?  We have very different ideas about how a lot of words are defined, as well as how to solve certain problems.

[Dave2009]

Ive been following Red Falcons build, and had absolutely no problems with it whatsoever.

http://www.guildwars...rdian-properly/