Stx.4857 Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 Hi all, So I have never really played Guardian before, but I am mainly a solo player who enjoys making builds to beat tough challenges like bounties, meta events, dungeons etc. I was looking at mace, and it looks like it's not recommended for any open world or pve builds from what I can tell. However the auto attack chain damage looks really high, and it has a built in heal as well. It also has access to a symbol that appears to deal decent damage, and also a very short cooldown access to aegis and protection. So before I go wasting mats or gold on setting up a mace build, I thought I would ask experienced guardians what is bad or good about mace, and why it doesn't appear to ever be recommended. I was thinking of making a greatsword / mace shield type setup. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otto.5684 Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 It is highly out dpsed by sword and scepter, as main hand options. There are situations here it can be good, if you need survivability. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogwarts Zebra.8597 Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 (edited) Pretty sure mace auto chain is one of the lowest dmg melee ones. The symbol also has a giga long cast time, very clunky to use. The only thing going for mace is skill3, but there's not many situations where it justifies mace over sword/scepter Edited September 19, 2022 by Hogwarts Zebra.8597 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falseprophet.1502 Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 (edited) 20 hours ago, otto.5684 said: It is highly out dpsed by sword and scepter, as main hand options. There are situations here it can be good, if you need survivability. This is half true. Mace actually has good power coefficients. Scepter is a pretty bad weapon right now outside of using it to proc Virtues in condition based builds. Mace does more damage in power builds. Sword still is the best mainhand out of the three. In terms of just auto dps and integrating a symbol based off my testing in a raid set up, using core guard: 1. Sword - 19.1K 2. Mace - 17.1k 3. Scepter - 15.7k Run whatever you want in open world. Mace will be fine. Any power guard build will suck in end game PvE until it gets some love. Edited September 19, 2022 by Falseprophet.1502 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAA.9653 Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 Unless you're doing end-game content, run whatever build you want so long as you realize that mace is not a "damage" focused weapon. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gehenna.3625 Posted October 12, 2022 Share Posted October 12, 2022 On 9/20/2022 at 1:54 AM, Falseprophet.1502 said: This is half true. Mace actually has good power coefficients. Scepter is a pretty bad weapon right now outside of using it to proc Virtues in condition based builds. Mace does more damage in power builds. Sword still is the best mainhand out of the three. In terms of just auto dps and integrating a symbol based off my testing in a raid set up, using core guard: 1. Sword - 19.1K 2. Mace - 17.1k 3. Scepter - 15.7k Run whatever you want in open world. Mace will be fine. Any power guard build will suck in end game PvE until it gets some love. Indeed and sword has a gap closer as well, which is really handy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nopoet.2960 Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 I'm running mace right now because after going down the rabbit hole of unlocking Willbender, theory crafting for a while I realized it would never be as much fun as my thief. I reevaluated what I wanted out of my guard and it turns out I just wanted a very different play style from thief. So I use mace/shield and staff right now in a healing build with giver's gear (had all the mats). The damage is slow but the build is neigh invincible. Instead of red numbers I see green. Lots and lots of green; so satisfying. So anyway before you go trying to turn your guardian into a dps spec just make sure that's what you really want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draxynnic.3719 Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 The reason you don't tend to see mace, even on healing builds, is that healing guardian builds tend to have enough healing without needing to use mace, and the fury from sword or axe (for firebrand) is valued more. That's not to say that mace is useless, though - people tanking on guardian will often take a mace for the extra block, for instance - but it does tend to be a bit of a niche weapon as a result. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borked.6824 Posted October 19, 2022 Share Posted October 19, 2022 I run mace MH+Torch WB because I find the animation lock on sword 3 to be the most aggravating QoL thing in this game. It's less dps, I know that, but I'll die before I use MH sword ever again unless they fix S3. Why not use scepter then? Please... Mace!... the least bad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mara.6782 Posted October 22, 2022 Share Posted October 22, 2022 Mace is only guardian weapon i dont see anyone using. I hope they improve it and many other underused weapons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gehenna.3625 Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 On 10/19/2022 at 7:44 PM, Borked.6824 said: I run mace MH+Torch WB because I find the animation lock on sword 3 to be the most aggravating QoL thing in this game. It's less dps, I know that, but I'll die before I use MH sword ever again unless they fix S3. Why not use scepter then? Please... Mace!... the least bad! I looked at the history of S3, but I can't find the QoL update you mention here. What am I missing here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samis.1750 Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 Mace is used on a healing Firebrand in World vs World. Minstrel mace/shield and staff are the weapons. It does fine in that game mode and support guardian is the backbone of an organized WvW group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batalix.2873 Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 I saw a mace variant of a build somewhere on metabattle I think. The idea being if you want the extra passive healing and boons (because DPS standing in the bad), it is a fine substitute for sword. Also, I personally believe in mucking with builds for better game feel. I run offhand torch on power zerker and alt axe on healscourge because they feel good to me and don't drop my damage too much. Nothing is worse than conforming to a meta build using weapons/attacks that don't create a satisfying gameplay loop for *you*, just because some kitten thinks content needs more DPS to clear (spoilers, in most cases, it doesn't). Like, for instance, one of my good friends discovered that meta condi zerker is not actually fun to play unless you like being in melee greatbow 80 percent of the time. MELEE. GREATBOW. Players need to kitten about meta. I don't play this game for numbers, I play for variety and style, which is very well-accommodated by the espec system when you're not minmaxing it into oblivion. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEpc.5172 Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 (edited) I use mace on core Guardian. Its quite viable especially with protection/healing. I would suggest you run power or spearmashal with mace/focus using- mystic rebuke trait.To be honest there shouldn't be any changes made its balanced. 🙂 Edited October 31, 2022 by JEpc.5172 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poop.4183 Posted November 1, 2022 Share Posted November 1, 2022 (edited) Use it personnaly on my firebrand heal , you loose the fury uptime and the cc from axe , but can cover it with the ult shout. AA chain heal a lot and with quickness is pretty nuts on healing numbers but recquired full melee hiting target , the skill 2 area is spammable and has nearly the same cooldown as his duration with the traits in favor of it , pulse regeneration and healing per pulse , and skill 3 helps a lot for prot. uptime (not really needed with your healing mantra) but is a free aegis for your team , a bit cluncky to get , cause you need to first block an attack to have aegis "after" the attack , but works fine . But in terms of damage it's indeed very low , weapon design is oriented more for survivability and support. Edited November 1, 2022 by poop.4183 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gehenna.3625 Posted November 5, 2022 Share Posted November 5, 2022 On 11/1/2022 at 4:18 PM, poop.4183 said: Use it personnaly on my firebrand heal , you loose the fury uptime and the cc from axe , but can cover it with the ult shout. AA chain heal a lot and with quickness is pretty nuts on healing numbers but recquired full melee hiting target , the skill 2 area is spammable and has nearly the same cooldown as his duration with the traits in favor of it , pulse regeneration and healing per pulse , and skill 3 helps a lot for prot. uptime (not really needed with your healing mantra) but is a free aegis for your team , a bit cluncky to get , cause you need to first block an attack to have aegis "after" the attack , but works fine . But in terms of damage it's indeed very low , weapon design is oriented more for survivability and support. hmmm, that actually makes a lot of sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infusion.7149 Posted November 6, 2022 Share Posted November 6, 2022 (edited) Mace is used on just about every WVW guardian mainly due to the passive heal on auto. It is also used for PVE healbrand tanking when fury isn't a necessity and aegis/block is beneficial. In PVP you see it on core support guardians. It is rare to see GS+ mace shield because mace shield tends to be run with staff. Edited November 6, 2022 by Infusion.7149 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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