6 replies to this topic

[ZioGio]

I'm a new player and I'm curious how much impact the primary attributes on armor, weapons, and accessories make before level 40.

For example, I'm starting a new Guardian and after unlocking all the weapon skills, I like Hammer as my primary weapon and Staff as my secondary weapon.  I've also chosen jeweler for crafting because there's a lack of rings/earrings/amulets on the market.  

From what I've read and my general play style, I figure I'll be soloing most of the content except for the events that move through an area; or when I happen to be in the same area as other players where we'll move through the content at the same time, but not necessarily group up.  

As I level my way to 40, and given my play style, should I keep the attributes about even with each other?  Or is it preferable to stack, say, Vitality and Toughness for survivability?  Or maybe Power and Precision for damage?  Or do the numbers really not add any benefit until later?  

I'm not a power-leveler, nor am I a min-maxer.  I'm an explorer who likes to smell the roses and knock mobs on their ass with my two-handed hammer.  So how can I make the best use of the primary attributes?

Thank you for your time and assistance!

Edited by ZioGio, 28 November 2012 - 02:29 AM.

[Megamoule]

If you have 15 radiance, it is generally a good idea to invest in some condition damage, since burning does a lot of damage, other than that Power should be your main focus.

While leveling, I never focused on vit/heal/toughness and never had any problem soloing anything but dungeons, [Group Event]s, and champions. Since you're playing hammer, it is even less needed since you have the protection symbol.

[Drekor]

You want power and precision, if you don't need any extra survivability as a guardian leveling up.

Edited by Drekor, 28 November 2012 - 06:52 PM.

[francron]

Drekor, on 28 November 2012 - 06:52 PM, said:

You want power and precision, if you don't need any extra survivability as a guardian leveling up.

Yes cause the 10-point trait is quite useless for Guardian actually.
To start with I will put 10 point to get the signet CD reduction than another 10 point to get the shout CD reduction. And spend your rest to Power, and now you are at your 40s and ready to go!

By the way it's kinda boring during the 20 - 40 period cause you cant' get most of the great trait.
Recommend doing the crafting level up instead until you're 40s.

Edited by francron, 30 November 2012 - 04:24 AM.

[GSSB Lunaspike]

As someone else said get power and precision. You naturally wear heavy armor, so that's not an issue. You've already picked your favorite weapon set. If you really like Hammer there is a post here about a Altruistic Healing hammer build. I prefer g/s but don't have any points in zeal. There is no need for it. The build I use is very similar to that one. I get my power from might/gear.

I also like the knights gear once you can get it. It gives power/precision/toughness for even more damage mitigation. Just remember when gearing that condition damage ignores armor.

Also Guardian condition damage is pretty bad. Don't be that guardian. Our only real condition is burning, which stacks in duration and not intensity. Think of our burning as a bonus, rather than our actual damage.

[SirGamesalot]

If you wanna solo shit and explore, I would recomend getting power (allways get power) and then get toughness or vitaliy.

[soxx]

When I leveled, I put 10 in radiance for the reduced signet cd, 10 in honor for reduced shout cd, and the rest in zeal for additional power.  On armor/weapons I stacked power/precision and on accessories vitality/toughness.  I was able to take things down at a nice pace and very rarely found myself in danger.

I wouldn't worry about traiting for a particular build until you hit 60 - when you purchase your grandmaster trait book it will reset your trait points so you can reallocate them then to an endgame build of your choice.

Edit - to clarify my choices a bit better:

Balance is key.

I stacked offensive stats like power/precision because I wanted to kill something eventually!  I was solo most of the time, so I was doing all the damage - I couldn't rely on a teammate to do damage while I supported them.  Between power and precision, I would say that power is the more important stat.

On that same note, I couldn't rely on a teammate to support me while I did damage, so I needed a bit of defensive stats like toughness/vitality.  Toughness helps against direct damage and vitality helps against condition damage - so for these a mix of both is best.

Like Lunaspike said above, as a guardian you benefit the most offensively from increasing your power, not your condition damage.

Edited by soxx, 03 December 2012 - 06:50 PM.