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[Ultramatum]

Hey everyone,

So if you remember, I used to like to run what I called the Ultra Support Guardian in WvW.  For a while, that build worked for me, but the more WvW I played, and the better groups I ran with, the more I realized that this type of Guardian just wasn’t as useful to the group as it could be.

The real issue with Guild Wars 2 is that there are no dedicated classes.  All characters can DPS, Tank, and Heal to a certain extent.  Other than DPS, there are no toons that can really be true tanks or healers, and I found that my Support Guardian was wasted trying to be a back-of-the-line healer.

So after a bit of research, and even more playtime in WvW, I came up with a build that I REALLY enjoy.  It is a great back-of-the-line support build.  Good survivability.  Great buffing potential.  But most of all – it does some awesome damage!

Because of this Guardian’s damage potential, I feel like I contribute much, much more to fights than my old support build did.  And best yet, I still get to play my back-of-the-line support role I enjoy so much.  This means I don’t have to wade into the heat of battle, I can hang back and help my team, but still contribute to the fight!

I call this my Ultra Fiery Support Guardian.

The reason it’s a “Fiery Support” guardian is because its damage is pretty much ALL based on conditions, particularly burning.

“But Ultra,” you say, “Condition Damage on Guardians sucks!  Why would you use such a thing to base your build around?”

Well, first of all, I’d argue with that notion that condition damage with the Guardian sucks.  It’s not on the level of a class such as the Necro, for instance, but when you can max it out properly, it can actually contribute a lot to any battle your team finds itself in.  Yes, you won’t be top DPS with such a build, but you know what?  You’re not supposed to be if you’re running as support!  And more than that, you’re doing WAY more DPS than if you’re trying to go for a “healing” support Guardian.  It’s also important to note that condition damage by-passes toughness, so the damage you inflict from conditions is true damage, that applies directly to an enemy’s health without mitigation from his toughness.  This is a big deal in WvW.

This build is based entirely around 2 things:  Might boons, and Damage Over Time (DoT) abilities.

The way I see it, the biggest contribution a support-based Guardian can make to his group is Might Buffing.  Might is an increase in DPS to everyone in the group.  For those who are unfamiliar with Might, it is a boon which increases a character’s power and can stack in intensity up to 25 times. More power essentially means more base damage, so when Might is stacked on a player, all that player’s damage is increased.  The effect of Might is determined by the following formula:

0.375 * Level + 5 = Power and Condition Damage per stack (e.g. 35 at level 80).

If you’ll notice, the formula also increases a player’s CONDITION DAMAGE in addition to his power!  This means that not only are base attacks affected by Might, but any conditions a character applies is affected as well!  With 25 stacks of might at level 80, the bonus is +875 to both the Power and Condition Damage stats.  With this build, you can keep roughly 12 stacks of might up on you and your team at all times.  That’s about +437 to both Power and Condition Damage.  Unfortunately, our main source of Might – the Empower skill – does not stack with itself, so the most we’re able to stack is 12 Might Boons at once.  But you know what?  That’s more than enough to give your team a significant boost in DPS.

In addition to the increase in group damage from Might stacks, we also stack Conditions as well.  The conditions we will focus on in this build are:

• Burning
  
• Vulnerability
  
• Immobilized

Burning will be our primary source of damage, and will act as a DoT, ticking off damage as time goes on, adding to your group’s DPS.

In addition to that, we’ll also be stacking Vulnerabilities on our targets.  Vulnerability is a condition which increases the damage an enemy takes.  It works out to about 1% increase in damage per stack.  With this build, we’ll be able to stack up to 4 Vulnerability conditions on our target at a time, increasing all damage taken by that target by 4%.  That’s a full 4% group DPS increase!  And, this is an AOE affect, so it can be applied to multiple Mobs or players.

Finally, Immobilized is simply a condition that prevents movement, turning, or dodging.  It’s essentially a “root” skill.  This is more useful in World vs. World when you’re trying to run down an escaping enemy, but it’s also useful in PvE where you can root a mob so you can drop an Area Of Effect (AOE) skill on top of it.  This is a situational skill, but can be helpful to your group when needed.

In addition to all this, you will also be able to apply a 50% duration increase to all other boons, as well as a 70% increase to Might duration.  This means you can essentially keep both Swiftness and Might up on your group almost constantly – extremely helpful in WvW and Dungeons.

So as you can see, this build is all about maximizing group DPS and Utility.  It’s light on heals, but heavy on Damage buffing.  Because of this, I feel it’s a lot of fun to play than trying in vain to heal your team as the enemy dishes out more damage than you could possibly ever heal through.  With this in mind, killing the enemy faster is better than healing in GW2, and that’s what this build is designed to help your team do.

So let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the build.

Armor

All armor is Level 80 Exotic Carrion armor, which has the Power, Condition Damage, and Vitality stats.  With this full set of armor, we’ll be buffing our Condition Damage as much as possible, and padding out our Vitality, which is what adds survivability to this build.
As you can see from the build link above, our Health will be around 20,000 HP, with Armor at 2,127.  This gives us an Effective Health of almost 25,000, with a 13% direct damage mitigation.  This means you can reduce weapon attack damage by 13%, and will be able to better survive conditions with a high health pool.  As you know, WvW has a LOT of conditions thrown around, so this will help you get through that.

The rune set I have on my armor is a standard Boon Duration build, with a slight buff to Might in particular.  The set up is:

• 2x Superior Rune of the Water
  
• 2x Superior Rune of the Monk
  
• 2x Superior Rune of Hoelbrak

Both the Water and Monk runes will give you a slight buff to your healing power, but what we really want are the +15% boon duration they give, for a total of 30% general boon duration.  The Hoelbrak runes give a +20% duration increase to Might, so while all your other boons get a flat 30% increase in duration from Water and Monk, the Might boon will get a 50% increase in duration from this set up.

This, combined with the stats you’ll put into the Virtues trait line, will give you a total +50% general boon duration increase, and a +70% Might duration increase.  This means your Might will end roughly the same time your Empower skill is off cooldown, and your Swifntess boon ends when your Symbol of Swiftness skill comes off cooldown, allowing you to keep both these boons up on an almost permanent basis.

You can buy or make both the Runes of Water and the Runes of Hoelbrak.  The reason we use Hoelbrak is because it’s the cheapest rune that gives us the +20% might buff.  The runes of Monk, however, must be bought with currency from the Ascalon Catacombs dungeon.  Two of these runes will cost about 240 tears, which is the currency you get from the Dungeon.

(Please Note:  The Boon Duration buffs apply to your allies as well as to you!  Whenever you apply a boon, it’s your boon duration that is applied to the boon, not the boon duration of the person it is applied to.  With this build, your boons will last a long time on your teammates and allies!)

Accessories

All accessories for this build are Carrion based – Amulet, Rings, and Earrings that give a bonus to power, condition damage, and vitality.  These will have the Chrysocola Orb upgrade to them, giving a boost to power, condition damage, and vitality.  The only different accessory is the back piece, which is a Rabid backpiece which gives precision, condition damage, and toughness.  You’ll need to buy this at the Temple of Dwayna in Malchor’s Leap.  You can purchase it there from the karma vendor for 42,000 karma points.  You can then upgrade it with a Chrysocola Orb.

Traits

The build for this Support Guardian is 20/0/0/30/20.  As you can see, this isn’t a very common build!  Most people completely ignore the Zeal trait line, but I’ve found that it has some interesting uses.  So let’s go through them, shall we?

20 points in Zeal:  This gives us +200 power, but more importantly, it also gives us +20% CONDITION DURATION!  This means all the conditions we apply will last 20% longer.  This is very important to this build because we will be applying lots and lots of conditions.
One of the other cool traits from Zeal is the 15 point bonus, which is “Symbolic Exposure.”  This makes our symbols apply vulnerabilities to enemies!  This is how we’re going to be stacking Vulnerability on our targets, giving our group that ever-important DPS increase.
For our major traits in Zeal, we’ll choose II and IX.  This is Fiery Wrath and Scepter Power.  Neither of these are great, but will give us a small increase in our personal DPS.  Fiery Wrath gives us a flat 10% damage increase against enemies with a burning condition applied to them (which we will have a lot of).  And Scepter Power gives us an increase in 5% to damage from our scepter weapon.

Our Honor line will give us +300 points to Vitality and +300 points to healing power.  But it will also give us some interesting passive abilities as well.  First of all, we’ll have “Selfless Daring” and “Elusive Power.”  So when we dodge roll, we heal ourselves and our allies, and we get a damage increase when our endurance is low.  So this means we should be dodging a lot to heal our team, but also give us a small damage buff.

For our major traits, we’ll be focusing on Symbols and Two Handed buffs.  We’ll trait into:

• III – Writ of Exaltation (symbols are larger)
  
• VII – Writ of Persistence (symbols last longer)
  
• IX – Two-Handed Mastery (Two-handed weapon skills recharge 20% faster)

Because our Symbols are Damage of Time AOEs, and they also will apply vulnerabilities to our targets, we want to make sure they’re big (so they hit as many enemies as possible) and they last as long as possible (so we can maximize ticks of damage and stacks of vulnerability).  The Two Handed mastery skill is necessary to ensure our Staff skills come off cooldown as our boons end.  If you want to go with a full symbol build with Writ of the Merciful, which makes our symbols heal allies who stand within them, you can, but you give up on perma-stacks of both Swiftness and Might, which to me is more important than the small Heal Over Time that the WotM trait will give you.

Finally, we have 20 points in the Virtues line, which gives us +20% boon duration, and +20% virtue recharge rate.  This boon duration increase is necessary to maximize how long our Might boon lasts for our team.  In addition, activating our virtues grant us Might, Regeneration, and Protection.  But because we get the minor trait “Virtue of Retribution,” we gain Retaliation whenever we activate any virtue.  This means we reflect 33% of all damage back to our attackers when this boon is active – very useful for crazy situations where you’re getting focused on!

For our major traits, we’re going to focus on Consecrations.  Most support builds like to focus on a combo of Shouts and Virtue buffs, but I’ve found Consecrations to be more versatile.  Plus, our primary burning skill is a consecration, so focusing on this will help to maximize our DoT potential.  So our skills here are:

• III – Consecrated Ground (consecration skills use ground-targeting)
  
• VI – Master of Consecrations (consecration skills recharge 20% faster and last longer)

These will allow you to place your consecrations anywhere you want, and help them recharge faster and last longer, which will increase your DPS and protection!  Remember – the consecrations you’ll use will create combo fields and help remove conditions as well.

Skills

The skills I slot in my bar are as follows:

Healing:  Signet of Resolve.  This skill is the biggest heal we have, but also gives a passive which removes a condition every 10 seconds.  If you want a bit more group utility, you can switch this out to Healing Breeze, but I find that skill buggy and hard to use, even after the latest “fix” to it.  I think you still get more bang for your buck with the Signet.

Utility 1:  Purging Flames.  This creates a ring of fire which burns foes and cures conditions on allies.  This is our primary DoT skill and we’ll be using it a lot!  It will apply a burning condition to all enemies in the ring that will last roughly 7 seconds, and will cause damage every second.  However, burning only seems to be applied on the first pulse, so be sure to aim it correctly when you cast!  It’s also a fire combo field, so enemies hit by projectiles that cross the fire ring, which will apply more burning conditions to the target.  Blasts and Leap finishers will apply Might boons.  Also, this consecration removes conditions on allies that are within it, applying one condition removal per tick.  It has about a 32 second cooldown when traited.

Utility 2:  Depending on your playstyle, you could use different skills here.  I personally like Wall of Reflection.  It gives group protection from enemy projectiles, and reflects them back at the attacker for increased DPS in addition to the group protection it provides.  It’s also a combo field for light, so your allies will remove conditions when they shoot through it.  This skill can be a real life-saver, and is one of the best the Guardian has at the moment.  Its cooldown is roughly 30 seconds, so you can use it a lot.  However, depending on your playstyle, you might like to swap this out for Judge’s Intervention, which lets you teleport to your enemy and create another burning condition to boot.  However, being that I’m traited fully into Consecrations with this build, I tend to prefer Wall of Reflection. Also, burning conditions do not stack, so using Judges Intervention isn’t really necessary.  But like I said, it depends on the kind of player you are.  If you’d like to have a shout skill, this is the slot to put one in.

Utility 3:  Signet of Wrath.  If you’re like most Guardian players, you’ve probably never touched this skill.  But its passive gives us +90 condition damage, which is perfect for this build.  And its active applies an Immobolize condition to your target, rooting them in place.  Its base Immobilize is 4 seconds, but this is increased with our condition duration buffs.  Its range is also 1200, so it can be done from far away.  This makes chasing down those run-aways in WvW much easier, and it’s guaranteed to hit better than scepter’s #3 skill, which can miss.  Chains of Light, the Scepter’s immobilize, only has a 900 range and 2 second immobilize by comparison.  So this active from the signet can be quite awesome!
Elite:  Tome of Wrath.  I know that Renewed Focus seems to be all the rage with Guardians, but I’ve really fallen in love with Tome of Wrath with this build.  It’s a 20 second long skill that allows you to spam burning attacks from afar!  Its #1 skill, Conflagration, applies a 2 second burning in an AOE effect that you can cast 5-6 times in the 20 seconds you have the skill up.  And though I haven’t tested it yet (it’s hard to test things in the heat of combat), I think that the condition damage and duration buffs apply to the burning it does.  The other skills with Tome of Wrath are kinda “meh,” since they take so long to cast, but its #1 ability is incredible with this build.  I use this a lot in fights, and often open with it.

Weapons

This build utilizes three weapons:  Staff, Scepter, and Shield.  I’d say Scepter/Shield is optional dependent on your play style, but you MUST wield a Staff for this build to work.  If you’re looking for an alternative, I’d go for a Staff/Greatsword combo if you’re the type who likes to get into the thick of battle.  Greatsword works fantastic with this build because its leap and Whirling Wrath activate the fire combo fields we’re using from Purging Flames.  However, since I like the back-of-the-line approach, I prefer the Scepter/Shield since it allows me to attack from range.

You can also substitute a Focus for the Shield if you prefer.  However, I like the shield for its ally protection buff, and its #5 skill can be used as an AOE heal, for a bit more group utility.  After all, isn’t that what a Support Guardian is there for?  If you find yourself in the thick of battle a lot, the Scepter/Torch is also a good combo, since the Torch’s #4 skill applies AOE burning conditions.  (Its #5 skill doesn’t though!)  It’s all up to you.

The Staff, Scepter, and Shield are all “Giver” class of weapons.  This grants precision, vitality, and CONDITION DURATION stats.  Carrion weapons will give you condition damage, but we’ve already stacked that up the wazoo.  With three Giver weapons, we’ll get +30% condition duration, which will make our DoT’s and conditions better, since they’ll tick more and last longer.

On my Staff, I put on a Superior Sigil of Corruption.  This gives me 25 stacks of +10 condition damage, for +250 condition damage at full stacks.  These stacks end on down-state (not death, down state!  This is important, because you can rally without dying, but still lose your stacks!), but can really buff up your condition damage.  You get +25 damage per second for every 100 points of condition damage, so a full stack from Sigil of Corruption is an extra 62 damage per tick of burning.  Not bad, eh?  I like to keep this on my staff because I tend to use it mostly while fighting stuff for its AOE autoattack and utility, so I gain stacks quicker with it.

On my Scepter, I use a Superior Sigil of Peril, which gives me a passive +10% vulnerability duration.  On the shield, there’s a Superior Sigil of Smoldering, which gives a +10% increase to burning duration.  That means, with your 3 Givers weapons and your points into the Zeal trait line, you’ll have a 60% increase in the duration of the vulnerabilities and burning you apply!  And with the food you’ll use, this scales up to a 100% increase.  (more on that later)
(If you choose to use another 1-handed weapon, such as a hammer or a greatsword, go with the Superior Sigil of Smoldering over the Superior Sigil of Peril.)

Consumables

No build is complete without food buffs!  For this build, you’ll want:

• Rare Veggie Pizza (+40% condition durations, +70 condition damage, +10% bonus experience)
  
• Master Tuning Crystals (Gain condition damage equal to 6% of your toughness and 4% of your vitality, +10% bonus experience.)

Both of these food buffs will last 30 minutes, and will increase your condition damage and condition duration.  Some people will tell you to use lifesteal food in WvW, but you have no chance to crit, so that type of thing isn’t worth your effort.  Stick with these to maximize the effectiveness of the build.

How To Play This Build

A Support Guardian is there to support.  You’re not meant to wade into the heat of battle, you’re meant to hang back and make sure your allies are dealing as much damage as they possibly can.  So this build is meant to be played from a distance, and your goal is to be applying both boons and conditions as much as possible.

Boons:  Your primary boon to apply is Might.  The easiest way to do this is to use the #4 ability on the Staff, which is Empower.  This will give a huge and quick boost to everyone’s DPS.  Plus, it’s also a heal!  Use this skill whenever it’s off cooldown, and before your allies go into battle.  Be sure to let them know you need to buff them before engaging in a big fight!  And be sure to try and keep them buffed by using this skill often during the fight.  Keep in mind though, you WILL be immobilized while using this skill, so be mindful of your surroundings.  With this build, your 12 stacks of might will end right before Empower is off cooldown, so hit it as soon as you can.

Swiftness is another boon you’ll be applying a lot, especially in WvW.  The primary skill for this is the Staff’s #3 ability, Symbol of Swiftness.  Drop this whenever you’re travelling somewhere to reduce the downtime.  Because of our build, SoS will be off cooldown as soon as the Swiftness boon ends, so you can re-cast it immediately to keep your group moving at top speed.

Before and during battle, we can also use the Shield’s #4 skill to apply a Protection boon to our allies, which reduces the amount of damage they take by 33%.  Try to hit your melee allies with this whenever you can to help their up-time.  With this build, they should get about 7 seconds of Protection from it.  Always be sure to use this skill, then pop your #5 shield skill twice for a quick burst heal before switching back to staff.  Combine Shield #4, Shield #5, Dodge Roll, F2 Virtue of Resolve, F3 Virtue of Courage, and Staff #4 for a ton of burst healing and damage reduction.

Conditions:  In addition to applying boons to allies, you’ll also be dropping conditions on enemies.  Your primary condition is Burning.  Burning does not stack, however it does tick off over time, so the longer you can apply it, the more damage you’ll do.  In WvW, I’ll often get lots of kills simply because my burning lasts so long, it gets in the killing blow before my allies can!  And with this build, your burning will tick for over 500 damage, which is a really nice number for a single DoT tick.  (Remember, that’s direct damage, not mitigated by toughness/armor!)  But keep in mind, spamming your burning abilities will not help much, since they do not overlap.  If you have other members on your team who apply burning, figure out who has the most damage output.  This is less of an issue in WvW where things are more spread out, but it can be important in dungeons.  Learn to look at the condition shields on your target and only apply burning once it’s worn off.  If another member of your team is applying burning, focus on applying Vulnerability.

We have many methods to apply burning.  Activating Virtue of Justice (our F1 skill) will apply burning to the first enemy we hit with our weapon attack.  We can use Purging Flames to create an AOE field which can apply burning to a group of enemies.  And Tome of Wrath’s #1 skill also applies burning (though its condition duration is very short).  As I mentioned before, time these so you’re not overlapping them, because they do not stack.

For a big fight or boss battle, I’ll start with Tome of Wrath.  If you’re using any other skill than #1, you’ll want to use the #4 skill first because it grants you and your allies Quickness, which means you can cast your other abilities faster.  However, I’ve found it best to just start spamming #1, and burn down as many enemies as you can.  #1 is a quick cast skill, so you don’t need to cast #4 first.

After Tome of Wrath, use Purging Flames whenever it’s off cooldown.  If there are multiple enemies, but mostly trash mobs, just save Tome of Wrath and open with Purging flames.  For 1 or 2 mobs, I’ll open with Virtue of Justice and cycle into Purging Flames.  Basically, you’ll be rotating between these 3 skills to apply burning and DPS.

In addition to burning, we’ll be applying Vulnerability conditions using Symbol of Swiftness, which is on a very short cooldown, so you can keep 4 stacks of vulnerability up a lot.  Just drop the Symbol of Swiftness over a group of mobs or players, and that will increase the damage they receive by at least 4%.  Keep dropping SoS, because it will also tick off a couple hundred damage per second for any enemy standing in it as well.  But the Vulnerability is the real thing we’re trying to apply to increase our group’s DPS.  Because we traited into larger symbols, we can apply this vulnerability to lots of mobs or players all at once, as long as they are standing on the symbol, it will keep a steady stack of 4 Vulnerability on them.

Finally, we have Immobilize.  Our Scepter #3 skill and our Signet of Wrath both immobilize.  However, Scepter skill #3 also applies vulnerability!  Up to 3 stacks.  So if you hit a target with Scepter #3, then follow up by swapping out to Staff and dropping a Symbol of Swiftness on them, that will give you 7 stacks of Vulnerability on your target.  You can also use your immobilize and then drop Purging Flames to ensure a target gets exposed to burning.  Signet of Wrath is best used for WvW because of its longer range, inability to be dodged, and hit it will give to your condition damage (you lose 90 points of condition damage when you activate it).  However, it’s worth using to keep those pesky enemies from running away from you before dying!

Speaking of conditions, if you find yourself or your team afflicted with lots of conditions, drop Purging Flames on yourself.  Standing in it will remove a condition for every second you are in the ring!  It’s not the best condition remover there is, but it works in a pinch!  Very useful for WvW situations.

When playing support, always try to keep yourself behind your team.  Let them engage the enemy before you wade in.  Drop your boons first, then start laying down your AOE DoTs.  Continue to buff, protect, heal, and DoT as much as you can during a fight.  Staff’s autoattack is a cone AOE that can hit up to 5 enemies, but your Symbol of Swiftness and Purging Flames will also do damage to multiple enemies.  And don’t forget to use your Virtues!  They will apply boons and protection to you and your allies, as well as burning to your targets.  Use them liberally.

Though you will be a powerhouse DoT damage dealer, this build isn’t very good for soloing.  You just don’t kill things quick enough!  Nor are you meant to.  Your 20k+ health pool makes you quite tanky, even though you’re lacking in toughness, you can take a lot of damage.  But it will take you a long time to kill things.  If you’re a solo PvEer, you’ll want a more DPS oriented build.  But if you’re in a guild or a team where you play dungeons, fractals, or WvW a lot, this is a fantastic build to contribute to a group.  You can contribute to the group DPS, help your group kill quicker, and help keep them buffed and healed.  This is probably the most well-rounded Support Build I’ve found for the Guardian, and I’d encourage all of you who like playing support to give it a try.  (And if you do, come back here and tell me about your experiences!)

As always, I hope you enjoyed this post, like this build, and will offer feedback.  All comments are appreciated!

-Ultramatum


P.S.  I don’t have any calculations for Ascended Gear yet because, well, I haven’t gotten any!  So I don’t know how they’d affect this build.  If/When I get Ascended Gear, I’ll be sure to update the build.  If you have any suggestions for what Ascended Gear would work best, please let me know!


Update:  3/19/13

So I've done a bit more play testing on this build and have updated it a little bit.  You can see the updated build here:

Condition Based Support Build Revamp

I updated the build to include Weapons that are currently working (Givers weapons are bugged at the moment), updated the traits based on what I found to be effective in combat, and also updated some utility skills to take more advantage of conditions.

Here are the changes in a nutshell:

1.  Weapons are now all Carrion with the power/condition damage/vitality stats.

2.  Can swap out Superior Sigil of Corruption on the Staff for Superior Sigil of Bloodlust if you want more power and increased weapons damage in the build.  Better for situations where you'll be more actively engaged in combat and want to kill stuff faster.  Its personal preference on if you want the increased condition damage or power damage.

3.  Switched out "Shield" in off-hand set for "Torch."  Torch #4 allows for AOE burning or single-target burning application, and #5 skill can remove conditions from teammates in its cone for group support condition removal, though it does not apply burning to its target (good for burst DPS though).

4. Changed healing skill from "Signet of Resolve" to "Shelter" to take advantage of the "Defender's Flame" trait to burn attackers when blocking.  This is great in WvW, though its a personal preference as to which heal skill you might want to use in dungeons.  Shelter gives a 2 second block in addition to a heal, so depending on if you're being focused on, this can deliver more damage to an attacker than Retaliation since burning is a DoT and you have high condition damage.

5.  Swapped out Signet of Wrath for race-specific utility skills that apply conditions other than Burning to take advantage of increased condition damage and condition duration stats.  I play a Norn, so I use "Call Of Owl" which applies 3 stacks of bleed on a single target.  Other Race-specific skills one can use are:

Asura:  Pain Inverter or Radiation Field
Charr:  Shrapnel Mine
Human:  Prayer to Lyssa
Sylvari:  None (In this case, I'd go with Signet of Wrath, unless you prefer Grasping Vines)

These are little-used skills but work in this build because they will apply conditions other than Burning and Vulnerability.

6.  Changed Back Slot to "Guild Defender's Backpack" for power/tough/vit stats, with Crysocola jewel upgrade for Power/con damage/vit boost.

7.  Changed the second trait in the Zeal line from "Scepter Power" (+5% damage from scepter) to "Binding Jeopardy" which applies a vulnerability to the target when immobilized (which you do with the #3 skill from scepter or Signet of Wrath, if you slot that skill).

8.  Took 10 points out of Honor and put it into Valor.  This increases Toughness by 100 and Crit Damage by 10%.  Primarily done to get the "Defender's Flame" trait which burns attackers while blocking (Can be used in conjunction with Shelter, and weapons that provide blocking, such as Focus #5 and Mace #3).

9.  Removed "Writ of Persistence" from Honor line for "Defender's Flame" in Valor line.  Symbols now last a few seconds less.  However, you can swap out "Writ of Exaltation" for "Writ of Persistence" if you're fighting a single-target boss mob and don't need the increased symbol size as much.  Please remember Symbol Ticks also apply Virtue of Justice's passive, which is burning on the 5th attack.  Therefore, 5 ticks from a symbol apply burning, or help autoattack to proc faster.

10.  Swapped to Superior Sharpening Stones instead of Master Tuning Crystals for increased weapons damage.  Still debating on if this is the best way to go, however, since the build is based around condition damage.  Might switch back to Master Tuning Crystals if using Sigil of Corruption instead of Bloodlust on weapons.

11.  Please remember that Might also affects condition damage, so use Empower on the Staff liberally for maximum condition damage.

12.  Tome of Wrath abilities are revealing themselves to be extremely useful in this build.  Still spamming #1 skill, but #2 (Affliction) applies Cripple and Weakness conditions to enemies, while #3 and #4 apply boons to allies, such as Might, Swiftness, Fury, and Quickness.  My rotation for this has become #4 (quickness will apply to you and help you cast faster), #3 (is a cone cast so must be aimed at your allies), #2, then spam #1 until #2 is off cooldown.  This can allow Tome of Wrath to become a huge help in your support efforts by bursting up your group's DPS with your increased Condition Damage and Duration, while also taking advantage of your increased boon duration, expecially for Might.

13.  Can swap out 2x Superior Runes of Hoelbrak for 2x Major Runes of the Water.  This will give you +10% boon duration increase, and is cheaper.  However, I chose to keep the Runes of Hoelbrak for the additional Power and Might duration.

Still having fun with the build and enjoying the support and utility it brings to the group while getting a good bit of damage output.  As always, feedback is welcome!

Edited by Ultramatum, 19 March 2013 - 11:03 PM.

[TheKnox]

If you're going all in on condition damage, you should get the last 10 points in virtues for permeating wrath. It can actually do a lot of damage in AoE situations even without condition damage gear.

I still don't see condition Damage being effective unless you come up with a way to stack bleeding and poison too, but you're welcome to try it.

[SpelignErrir]

Pretty sure giver's weapons are broken. They don't give condition duration.

[Ultramatum]

@TheKnow - thanks for your feedback, but I really don't think Permeating Wrath is a very good investment.  It's area of effect occurs around the player, not the target, so it wouldn't do much for a back-of-the-line support role.  As a Guardian we don't have bleeding/poison options really (though there may be some in the race-specific traits), so I'm working with what I got.  However, don't discount Vulnerability!  It does stack and increases the damage the burning does, in addition to +10% damage from our weapons to a burning traget.

@SpelignErrir - I was unaware of this.  I thought in my tests I noticed a difference, but then again, WvW is so chaotic maybe I was mistaken.  Guess I'll invest in some Valkyrie Weapons until Giver's are fixed!  Thanks for pointing this out to me.

[TheKnox]

Last time I checked, vulnerability only increased direct damage. The problem with guardian condition setups is that you only get access to burning for damage. Even at 2000 condition damage, you'll only be doing 830 damage per second max.  If you compare that to a 25 stack of bleeding, you can get over 3500 DPS.

At the end of the day, I'm sure a build like this would be helpful to your team, but you could get almost the same group benefit without totally handicapping your damage output.

You're basically providing might, a few stacks of vulnerability, and doing poor damage. The might can be provided in a number of ways, and the relatively small amount of vulnerability probably isn't worth jumping through hoops to get.

You'd probably provide more help to your group by going heavy shouts, and stacking PTV gear and wading into trouble to put retaliation up nonstop.

Something like 10/0/0/30/30 that picks up fiery wrath, shout cooldowns, 2h mastery, pure of voice, vengeful, absolute resolution, and permeating wrath.

That would allow you to wade through groups burning large numbers of people, while keeping up might and all of the added shout utility. Plus you'll be keeping up retaliation that hits for about 380 per attack, which is absurdly powerful in a group fight. Plus you'll still be burning for over 425 DPS as well.

[Ultramatum]

Hi TheKnox,

Vulnerability does increase direct damage, which is why it's a good buff to group DPS.  I think this comes down to a difference in play styles.  Though your argument is valid, running a Retaliation Build isn't for everyone.  As I said, I like to play as a back-of-the-line support Guardian, particularly in WvW, where things are chaotic and get messy.  You can't reliably keep up Retaliation in the face of a huge enemy Zerg who can burst you down in seconds.  However, you can continually keep up Might, Swiftness, Vulnerability, and Burning!

Remember, this build isn't about maximizing damage, it's about maximizing support.  Helping keep Might and Swiftness stacked on players during battle while debuffing and doing DoT on enemies is what I call support.  Sure, shouts, Tough/Vit gear, and front-line battle can be a good build, but it doesn't fit into certain people's playstyle. I like consecrations more than shouts because they are ranged and can affect more people, plus can be used offensively.  I don't like wading through groups of enemies, I leave that to Warriors, Theives, and Tank/DPS Paladins.  I like to hang back and offer support.  This build is really useful in WvW zerg groups and tower defense, and it comes in handy in dungeons as well.

I've tested this build out and it really fits my back-of-the-line playstyle.  It's not about min/maxing my DPS, it's just about what I can do to support my group while playing the way I enjoy.  I found the healing route to be not as fun or effective as this build, and if I want to DPS and kill stuff, I'm not focused on dropping Protection or other boons on my group, I'm looking for maximum damage output.  I'm sure you're correct and very knowledgeable about the class, but this build is for a style of play that is obviously not one you enjoy.  :-)

[GuanglaiKangyi]

Ultramatum, on 16 March 2013 - 09:54 PM, said:

Hi TheKnox,

Vulnerability does increase direct damage, which is why it's a good buff to group DPS.  I think this comes down to a difference in play styles.  Though your argument is valid, running a Retaliation Build isn't for everyone.  As I said, I like to play as a back-of-the-line support Guardian, particularly in WvW, where things are chaotic and get messy.  You can't reliably keep up Retaliation in the face of a huge enemy Zerg who can burst you down in seconds.  However, you can continually keep up Might, Swiftness, Vulnerability, and Burning!

Remember, this build isn't about maximizing damage, it's about maximizing support.  Helping keep Might and Swiftness stacked on players during battle while debuffing and doing DoT on enemies is what I call support.  Sure, shouts, Tough/Vit gear, and front-line battle can be a good build, but it doesn't fit into certain people's playstyle. I like consecrations more than shouts because they are ranged and can affect more people, plus can be used offensively.  I don't like wading through groups of enemies, I leave that to Warriors, Theives, and Tank/DPS Paladins.  I like to hang back and offer support.  This build is really useful in WvW zerg groups and tower defense, and it comes in handy in dungeons as well.

I've tested this build out and it really fits my back-of-the-line playstyle.  It's not about min/maxing my DPS, it's just about what I can do to support my group while playing the way I enjoy.  I found the healing route to be not as fun or effective as this build, and if I want to DPS and kill stuff, I'm not focused on dropping Protection or other boons on my group, I'm looking for maximum damage output.  I'm sure you're correct and very knowledgeable about the class, but this build is for a style of play that is obviously not one you enjoy.  :-)

You can do all that crap without gimping all your DPS.  That's what Knox was getting at.

[heatrr]

GuanglaiKangyi, on 17 March 2013 - 03:36 AM, said:

You can do all that crap without gimping all your DPS.  That's what Knox was getting at.

Unless he is not worried about DPS since he is of course describing a SUPPORT guardian, not a front line bruiser .... in WvW.
All one has to do is look at his past topics and one can come to an easy realization: he likes to play SUPPORT
behind the line guardians, Guangla, cut him some slack as such.

Edited by heatrr, 17 March 2013 - 04:43 PM.

[GuanglaiKangyi]

heatrr, on 17 March 2013 - 04:43 PM, said:

Unless he is not worried about DPS since he is of course describing a SUPPORT guardian, not a front line bruiser .... in WvW.
All one has to do is look at his past topics and one can come to an easy realization: he likes to play SUPPORT
behind the line guardians, Guangla, cut him some slack as such.

If he can run the exact same support build with more DPS, I don't see why he wouldn't.  That said, I haven't actually looked at his build, I'm just going by what Knox said.

[TheKnox]

I actually ran around with this build for a few hours this afternoon.
http://gw2skills.net...LrYuukitgYUw DA

It is woefully terrible in solo combat, but it will most likely be able to outlast anyone who wants to fight 1v1.

It was however, brutally effective in large zerg fights. With food buffs and might stacked up, retaliation hits for just under 450 per attack, and the shouts make a big difference in the outcome of the fights.

If you prefer to be in the thick of things, you can swap consecrated ground for permeating wrath and ramp up your own damage output.

[Nikephoros]

Oh boy.  Another cautionary tale of someone posting a build on guru labeled "best" "ultimate" "perfect" when it's far from that.  Try letting the build and your guide speak for themselves rather than hyping it up, but when in the end it makes you look like an attention seeker.

[Ultramatum]

GuanglaiKangyi, on 17 March 2013 - 05:17 PM, said:

If he can run the exact same support build with more DPS, I don't see why he wouldn't.  That said, I haven't actually looked at his build, I'm just going by what Knox said.

Hi there!  Please read through my original post if you'd care to comment on it.  I actually think this build can do very good DPS, and would like to see your feedback on it.

TheKnox, on 17 March 2013 - 10:59 PM, said:

I actually ran around with this build for a few hours this afternoon.
http://gw2skills.net...LrYuukitgYUw DA

It is woefully terrible in solo combat, but it will most likely be able to outlast anyone who wants to fight 1v1.

It was however, brutally effective in large zerg fights. With food buffs and might stacked up, retaliation hits for just under 450 per attack, and the shouts make a big difference in the outcome of the fights.

If you prefer to be in the thick of things, you can swap consecrated ground for permeating wrath and ramp up your own damage output.

Hey TheKnox, thank you for your great contributions to this thread!  I really appreciate it.  :-)

Your build is similar to a build I use for running more traditional support guardian.  The exception is I focus more on Healing Power and Toughness instead of Power/Tough/Vitality.  I also spec more for group Condition Removal with my food choice and one of my utility slots.  I actually find that this "Condition Support Build" can do more damage than trying to go for Retaliation, since you can control the conditions a bit easier than speccing for 100% Retal uptime (and you don't have to get hit to apply the damage!).

Have you tried my build out yet?  Would love to hear your thoughts on it's actual application.

Nikephoros, on 18 March 2013 - 02:19 PM, said:

Oh boy.  Another cautionary tale of someone posting a build on guru labeled "best" "ultimate" "perfect" when it's far from that.  Try letting the build and your guide speak for themselves rather than hyping it up, but when in the end it makes you look like an attention seeker.

My gamer nick-name is "Ultramatum," so i tend to put "Ultra" in the name of all my toons and builds, lol.  It's more to signify "This is my build" than saying "Its the greatest!"  This build is based around offensive support rather than defensive support, and I personally think it is the best Offensive Support build I've come across in the game.  So sorry if I sound like a poser, but that isn't my intention.

Updated the build with new information from my testing and feedback from others!  it's coming together nicely.  

[Nikephoros]

Fair enough.  But I would still refrain from using words like "best" because it makes a bold claim that is very difficult to back up.  The worst part is that you will attract more criticism and negativity by labeling it as such.  If you want positivity and constructive criticism, humility works wonders.

For what it's worth, i get what this build is trying to do, I just don't see why it's useful to an organized team.  The offensive buffs aren't nearly as good as what a warrior brings to a party (not counting the warrior's considerable personal DPS which this doesn't have) and as far as defense goes, this is not specced for that.  So I guess what I'm getting at is, this build does something, but that something isn't incredibly valuable for an organized team.  If you're discussing pugs, with the argument being that pug dps usually sucks so offensive buffs here would be helpful, that may be true but adding a soft hitting character to a team in order to buff the overall dps seems dubious.

[Ultramatum]

Nikephoros, on 20 March 2013 - 02:19 PM, said:

Fair enough.  But I would still refrain from using words like "best" because it makes a bold claim that is very difficult to back up.  The worst part is that you will attract more criticism and negativity by labeling it as such.  If you want positivity and constructive criticism, humility works wonders.

For what it's worth, i get what this build is trying to do, I just don't see why it's useful to an organized team.  The offensive buffs aren't nearly as good as what a warrior brings to a party (not counting the warrior's considerable personal DPS which this doesn't have) and as far as defense goes, this is not specced for that.  So I guess what I'm getting at is, this build does something, but that something isn't incredibly valuable for an organized team.  If you're discussing pugs, with the argument being that pug dps usually sucks so offensive buffs here would be helpful, that may be true but adding a soft hitting character to a team in order to buff the overall dps seems dubious.

Hi Nikephros,

You're making a straw-man argument here.  You mght a well be saying "Well, why would any oganized team ever run with any class other than Warriors?"  Warriors are geared towards high DPS. You could make the argument that if you just want max weapon DPS there is no need for Necros, Mesmers, Rangers, or Guardians in this game.

This is not a forum for the Warrior class.  This is a GUARDIAN forum, to discuss this specific class.  If you want to make an argment against this build, make one using other examples of THIS CLASS.  That is the only fair comparison to make.

Obviously, this buid isn't going to out-DPS an offensive specced damage-based Guardian Build.  It's not going to be able to duel in WvW.  It can't hold points in sPvP.  However, it is a different style of support play for those who enjoy playing that role.

Traditional support Guardians are based on Boon Duration and Shouts, and that's pretty much it.  They stack healing power and toughness, run Save Yourselves, Stand Your Ground, and Hold The Line, and spend most of combat dodge-rolling and doing very little DPS, even if they are actively engaged in combat.

What this build is trying to do, is break out of that mold, allow a player to still support their team, but also add a more offensive element to the support role.  I think a Support Oriented Guardian can add more DPS to his group with conditions and DoTs than he could running with Empowering Might/Altruistic Healing and running into battle with a greatsword or hammer.

Support Guardians typically run 0/0/10/30/30 so they have lower attack damage, and zero crit chance and crit power.  So weapons like the Greatsword and Hammer hit like a wet noodle.  The low toughness makes them less tanky too, though the healing makes up for that.  However, its still hard for them to be front-line fighters.

This build keeps players in the back where they can survive longer and keep buffing allies, while doing massive Damage over Time to enemies and buffing group DPS with the application of conditions and DoTs.

Why would anyone use this build in organized teams?  Well, maybe because the Warrior, Theif, Necro, and Elementalist classes all get damage buffs against enemies that have burning/conditions applied to them?  Maybe the Symbol DoTs and Buffs are useful to the group? Maybe the condition removal this build offers can be useful?  Maybe the combo fields we can drop help group DPS?  The increased boon duration can benefit the group?  The quick Might-stacking and healing we can bring to the party?  The defense and healing from consecrations?  There are literally tons of reasons why this build would work well in an organized group.

Plus, its fun to play!  I especially enjoy it in WvW.

Also, though our attacks might be soft hitting from an auto-attack standpoint, the DoTs we throw out with burning and symbols add up over time. In boss battles with lots of trash mobs, groups of mobs, or open zerg warfare in WvW, those AOE DoTs can really stack up, especially if you have increased condition duration and other classes are specced to deal extra damage against enemies with conditions.

If you want to compare this build and its usefulness, please compare it to other Guardian Support Builds.  It's not going to blow the DPS specced players away, but it brings almost the same utility as a full support oriented Guardian with lots more damage.

If I'm in an organized team that needs more DPS, I'll respec and switch armor.  If I'm playing support, however, I'll run this build or a healing/condition removal support build, which is different from this one.  It all depends on how much killin' I feel like doing that day.  Ha ha ha.

So please, no more Warrior comparisons, if you will.  Critique the build based on the class its meant for.

Edited by Ultramatum, 20 March 2013 - 07:20 PM.

[Nikephoros]

Cross profession comparisons are perfectly relevant since party-role is what matters most.  If your role is "offensive support" you have to compare your effectiveness to all other professions that can be slotted into that role.

If I made a pure condition damage Guardian build, I would HAVE to compare it to Engineer or Necro condition damage builds simply because I have to justify its viability.  If a party says, "we need a condition damage person" you would have to prove that a condition damage Guardian was a viable replacement for one of the others.  By the same token, your Guardian build is geared towards offensive support and condition damage.  By my reckoning you have to prove that your build is more viable than a condition stacking Well Necro or a standard DPS Warrior who not only adds personal DPS but also stacks Vulnerability and buffs his team's DPS with FGJ and Banners.

I guess the point is, just because a build exists doesn't mean its viable, and it certainly doesn't mean it's optimal, because you have to compare it's usefulness to every profession, not just its own.  It is possible that this IS the best offensive support Guardian build.  But being the best in that business is useless if you don't want to be in that business in the first place.

[chullster]

What the others are trying to say more kindly is you've chosen crap traits with crap gear coupled together to make an ultra crap guardian.

I use less harsh words than it deserves due to moderation.

[Cake is Cake]

Ultramatum, on 20 March 2013 - 07:12 PM, said:

If you want to compare this build and its usefulness, please compare it to other Guardian Support Builds.  It's not going to blow the DPS specced players away, but it brings almost the same utility as a full support oriented Guardian with lots more damage.

Err no, other builds have better support and more dmg. This build is just a good reason as to why noone plays condition guardian.