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Swap out trait line for better build (PvE)


Holy Hallidor.3067

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Hi community still newbie player here, my second build discussion thread. So I use this build in open world pve, I wanted to ask how can I improve the build overall:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAsd7enkICFChtCBWDB8Dhj6hKHinYKeDgdIGsTQ8moA-jBCBQBnRJIAeCAQ4kAkHNMPd/Bco+DWU+lC9DAA-e

The intention with this build is to reach 100% crit. chance. My idea was to combine the 20% crit from fury boon and 25% crit from "Righteous Instincts" trait as my base crit. chance is approx. 56% (full berserk gear and rune of accuracy). Now I found out that you already get 15% + 10% from radiance trait line if you use one hand weapon and apply burning to enemies. So I thought I can either omit RI or the fury boon from my one hand sword/"Focus of the monk" trait respectively. What would you suggest? Drop the currently used valor trait line and swap to zeal or even honor for survivability? Or even go Dragonhunter/Power Firebrand? I have limited experience with those as I haven't been playing very long and played core guardian mostly.Another thought was to swap some berserk gear with valkyrie to get more life as I am running around with mere 11k life. With healing skill "litany of wrath" though I can manage to kill enemies fast enough (fast enough for me at least) and also survive quite well.

So what do you think, I must admit it is a rather broad build question and not very specific, but I would be happy enough if you can push me a little bit to a good direction at least.

Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Forgot the link to the build.

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Guardian with berserker stats deals a lot of damage, but they're also very squishy. If you are an experienced enough player, you don't need to use Valor or Honor for survivability. Valor is mainly used for self sustain and Honor is used for supporting allies.

If surviving certain encounters is a problem for you as guardian, try using zeal instead of valor. Zeal 223 is what I would recommend you use. You get 7% increased damage to burning foes, 20% reduced greatsword cooldowns as well as being able to heal yourself when you use combo finishers in light fields (use Symbol of Wrath and follow it up with every greatsword skill as all of them have combo finishers) and increased symbol damage and gaining power based on your toughness.

Finally, if you have low health, make sure you use your fast hitting skills once you use your healing skill. Litany of Wrath is used not only because of it's cooldown which is shorter compared to the other healing skills, but because if you are fast enough you can heal yourself far more than any other healing skill for guardian. 25% of your damage heals you for 6 seconds which is plenty of time to heal yourself and survive fights with tough enemies.

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Thank you for your answer! I currently use sword/focus and scepter/shield combination.If I change to greatsword and swap valor to zeal how would I reach 100% crit. chance?

Because I would be lacking fury boon then and also do not gain crit. chance from right hand strength trait, because of the two-hand weapon. Either I use sword in second weapon set to get access to fury by using the sword symbol. Or my base crit. chance has to be increased up to 65% and together with the additional crit from the radiance trait line, RI and radiant power, I will get back to 100% crit. chance?

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Looks like I have to stay in my current build, otherwise I do not have enough crit. chance (upcoming balance changes):

Right-Hand Strength: This trait no longer gives a flat critical-hit chance. Instead it gives an additional 80 precision, plus an additional 80 power while wielding a one-handed weapon.Zealot's Defense: Damage has been increased by 50% in PvE only. Fixed a bug that caused some visual effects to display on the player when enemies were hit.

But this buffs my current weapon set with sword.

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@"Holy Hallidor.3067" said:Thank you for your answer! I currently use sword/focus and scepter/shield combination.If I change to greatsword and swap valor to zeal how would I reach 100% crit. chance?

Because I would be lacking fury boon then and also do not gain crit. chance from right hand strength trait, because of the two-hand weapon. Either I use sword in second weapon set to get access to fury by using the sword symbol. Or my base crit. chance has to be increased up to 65% and together with the additional crit from the radiance trait line, RI and radiant power, I will get back to 100% crit. chance?

You don't need 100% precision. With full berserker gear, you'll have about 50% precision, so getting 25% more precision from retaliation and fury combined gives you about 95% precision. Some may see that as overkill, but if you want that and you need more reliable ways of getting fury, then use the elite skill "Feel My Wrath!".

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  • 2 weeks later...

@"Hoodie.1045" said:

If surviving certain encounters is a problem for you as guardian, try using zeal instead of valor. Zeal 223 is what I would recommend you use. You get 7% increased damage to burning foes, 20% reduced greatsword cooldowns as well as being able to heal yourself when you use combo finishers in light fields (use Symbol of Wrath and follow it up with every greatsword skill as all of them have combo finishers) and increased symbol damage and gaining power based on your toughness.

As you suggested I swapped from valor to zeal (213) still using one-hand sword. gw2skills build editor does not yet reflect the change of right hand strength trait (+80 precision). But accounting the former I currently reach 70% crit. chance + fury + 10% vs burning enemies = crit. cap.My current build:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAsd7enkICtChFCBOCB8Dhj4hKnivYMWDgHoetbQ+mCA-jRCBQBnRJIOU/JFaHwiyv8oj5pLIAhTCAAeCA0Y/gAAIA0j5x84H/YA-e

I traited perfect inscriptions because I already reach 100% crit. chance. There is an alternative setup that I sometimes switch to, I trait righteous instincts, equip greatsword and set zeal to 223 (that must be according to Hoodies suggestion). What do you think?

Edit: Fixed wrong armor rune.

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@Holy Hallidor.3067 said:@"Hoodie.1045" said:

If surviving certain encounters is a problem for you as guardian, try using zeal instead of valor. Zeal 223 is what I would recommend you use. You get 7% increased damage to burning foes, 20% reduced greatsword cooldowns as well as being able to heal yourself when you use combo finishers in light fields (use Symbol of Wrath and follow it up with every greatsword skill as all of them have combo finishers) and increased symbol damage and gaining power based on your toughness.

As you suggested I swapped from valor to zeal (213) still using one-hand sword. gw2skills build editor does not yet reflect the change of right hand strength trait (+80 precision). But accounting the former I currently reach 70% crit. chance + fury + 10% vs burning enemies = crit. cap.My current build:

I traited perfect inscriptions because I already reach 100% crit. chance. There is an alternative setup that I sometimes switch to, I trait righteous instincts, equip greatsword and set zeal to 223 (that must be according to Hoodies suggestion). What do you think?

Edit: Fixed wrong armor rune.

It's better to use Righteous Instincts. Perfect Inscription may improve the passive effects of the signets, but in my opinion it's better to keep the signets passive rather than activating them. Bane's Signet is a hard CC skill which is useless if you're playing with greatsword (Binding Blade, skill 5) and Signet of Judgement burns nearby enemies, but the damage is low especially if you're playing with berserker gear and grants aegis to allies which you can already do with Retreat!, the shout skill and Virtue of Courage (F3).

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Thank you Hoodie again for your thoughts and input. Due to my limited time and because I still didn't play the whole story content yet, I'm currently in open world pve only. Traited zeal 223, radiance 333 and virtues 123. So I finally changed valor to zeal. My weapon set is GS (previously sword/focus) and scepter/focus (previously scepter/shield). My equipment is full berserker with eagle runes and together with rune of accuracy I have 65% crit. chance. Adding Righteous Instincts and the 10% crit. chance from radiant power I can have 100%, I understand in group play there are other sources of crit. chance (banner of discipline, spotter) but mostly soloing I guess there is nothing more I can optimize.

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Almost all of it looks good, but a couple of things stand out for me in your choices of utilities. I'm assuming many of your utilities were chosen to help with retaliation uptime, but as a Core Guard, especially in open world, keeping up 100% retaliation is silly easy.

Your rotation is as follows:

  1. Activate F1 before attacking, which thanks to Virtue of Retribution (in the Virtues tree) gives you 3.25 seconds of retaliation.
  2. Proceed to roflstomp whatever you are targeting.
  3. Your F1 virtue is now reset thanks to Renewed Justice trait in the Radiance trait line.
  4. Activate F1 before attacking your next target
  5. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

If whatever you are fighting lives longer than 3.25 seconds, basically Champions or Veterans, then you have two other sources of retaliation to fall back on:

  1. Using your heal skill will give you 10s of retribution thanks to Healer's Retribution
  2. Symbol of Wrath (GS 4) gives you 1.25s of retribution, which should be part of your rotation anyways.

So there is really no reason to use either Stand your Ground (as your F3 gives you a stun break and stability, thanks to Virtues trait Indomitable Courage) or Signet of Judgement for retaliation, because as things die so quickly in open world, you will have no trouble with ret uptime.

Some suggestions for alternatives:Sword of Justice: solid DPS and applies stacks of vulnerability. If you need more CC against a champ, etc, you can swap for Hammer of Wisdom.Retreat: Core Guards are slow, so a boost of swiftness is always good, but for you, this is another way of attaining Aegis, which is a 20% buff in damage thanks to Unscathed CommanderSmite Conditions: only really needed in HoT content and beyond, as on Core maps you rarely get bombarded with conditions, but this utility acts as a condition cleanse + AoE ability, and is good to use if the cleanse from your F2 isn't sufficient. You can also use Focus 5 as a Blast Finisher in either of your symbols (which are light fields) to remove 1 condition.Hold the Line: if what you want is damage resistance, this shout gives you 33% DR for 6s as well as a small heal, vs 10% DR from signet. Also works on allies.

Elite Skill:I've never used Renewed Focus because of its cooldown, but all 3 Elites are worth considering.Feel My Wrath is a 10s of 20% Crit and 8s of Quickness, also applies to alliesSignet of Courage is a passive pulsing AoE heal, and when activated (2.5 sec cast time) will restore you and 4 allies up to 100% health.

I tend to use Signet of Courage when out in open world just because I never seem to remember to activate Feel My Wrath, and most stuff dies without needed it, but you're good to go with any of them, the choice will be personal preference.

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@paShadoWn.5723 said:Sword is meant to be used with torch and puts out arguably more damage than GS if you are willing to don some condi damage.

There is no situation where sword out dpses GS in a power build. Focus outdpses torch off hand as well. Condi builds use axe and scepter.

Sword is better than scepter in open world PvE in most situations as the second weapon to GS and axe. As things become bigger and you get raid like buffs, scepter becomes better for both power and condi builds.

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Thank you all for your input, I currently traited zeal 223, radiance 333 and virtues 123. As weapons GS, Scepter/Focus respectively. Litany of Wrath, Bane Signet, Sword of Justice, Retreat and Feel my Wrath on skills 6 to 10. I changed my rune of the eagle (because I thought it is advantageous to have 100% crit as solo guardian) to rune of the scholar, as I think more power is preferable.

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@otto.5684 said:

Sword is better than scepter in open world PvE in most situations as the second weapon to GS and axe. As things become bigger and you get raid like buffs, scepter becomes better for both power and condi builds.

I disagree, only because in Open World you are more likely to come across a situation where having a ranged weapon can be helpful, vs instances like Fractals where you can just stack up. Thinking specifically of open world metas, bosses, bounties, etc. Plenty of times I'm glad I don't have to stay in melee range of the target.

@Holy Hallidor.3067 said:Thank you all for your input, I currently traited zeal 223, radiance 333 and virtues 123. As weapons GS, Scepter/Focus respectively. Litany of Wrath, Bane Signet, Sword of Justice, Retreat and Feel my Wrath on skills 6 to 10. I changed my rune of the eagle (because I thought it is advantageous to have 100% crit as solo guardian) to rune of the scholar, as I think more power is preferable.

The damage boost from the 6th set bonus is great, but another benefit of Scholar runes is the Ferocity boost. As you are running at max crit, a boost to your crit damage is a straight up DPS boost.

Glad you're liking Guardian.

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The eagle runes grant the same amount of ferocity as the scholar runes. The difference is former grants precision, latter power. I thought on solo play have precision to get 100% crit solely by maintaining retaliation thus benefitting from Righteous Instincts allow me to have 100% crit almost all the time (with eagle runes and rune of accuracy I have 65 base crit. + RI (25%) + radiant power (10%)*= 100%, and that in total is better than the extra power on scholar runes but not having 100% crit. chance comparatively (with scholar runes and rune of accuracy I have 57% crit. + RI and radiant power = 92%). But I didn't notice a big difference to scholar runes gameplay wise (didn't test on golem though), I guess it is because the difference in crit chance ~8% of the setups is not too big. And because scholar runes have power (and eagle runes not) thus better base damage and I also get 100% crit. definitely in some form of group play (fury, warrior banners and similar), I finally switched from eagle runes to scholar runes. The pure damage boost is also different: Eagle runes 10% damage increase while enemies health <50% and scholar runes 5% damage increase while own health >90%. Here I guess scholar is better too, because my initial burst does profit most from scholar rather than from eagle damage increase. But this whole rune discussion is a whole topic for itself and does not address my initial post that is switching trait line. Thanks to all of you and your help/input I finally switched from valor to zeal and adjusted radiance and virtues trait lines + utility skills. Again thank you very much especially @Hoodie.1045 and @Turkeyspit.3965.

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