Just got the game today made a Warrior and Guardian any advice for guides and builds and such please? Ton of stuff seems outdated or super hard to play/not explained well.

[Quickpawmaud.6374]

4 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

Signet of Rage accomplishes the same thing as "For Great Justice", but better.  Also, as you play alongside of other players, you'll receive might and fury passively from their traits and utilities.  Similarly, Axe already gives you Fury,   Because of this, giving those boons to yourself is fairly low priority.  Endure Pain, however, is a good panic button to prevent you from dying.  If you wanted something else, Frenzy gives you quickness, which Signet of Rage doesn't give, and Quickness is a rarer and more powerful boon than Fury.  Another option is Signet of Fury, which will give you extra precision passively.  

I thought Might was something you would want to keep stacked as high as possible so spamming Signet of Might, For Great Justice, and Signet of Rage as much as possible would give you more damage. Seems like the Signets are the best skills for Warrior. Most builds seem to use at least 2 of them.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Quickpawmaud.6374

[slpr.2647]

i saw a good video today about how to test classes and their elite specs, and i never knew/thought of this.  create a character, dont boost it, and go into the pvp lobby, it boosts to 80 and you have access to all gear and weapons. head to the training dummies and smash away.  test everything out that you cant think of, weapon combos, stats, util skills, everything. find something you dont like , delete and try another class. no gold spent on weapons and armor. 

[Quickpawmaud.6374]

23 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

I have never played core warrior.  But, if I were, I'd recommend starting with something like this for PVE:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKwAceJlZwSYhsJWJO+SVLNA-DSIUR09PGRS1KVl0zCAUB-e

Know that you can replace the healing signet with Mending if you're dealing with a lot of conditions.  There's a couple of things here that are different from basically every MMO out there.  First, it is the gear choice.  The reason why it is that you'll see gear prefixes with 100% offensive stats is because... they work, really well.  GW2 was designed PVP-up, which means that all of the stats you have at base are good enough to be serviceable even with no investment.  Also, GW2's combat system is more active, encouraging dodging and blocking attacks more than standing around and taking hits.  Out of combat, you'll automatically heal up, so it doesn't matter if you beat an enemy by an inch or by a mile.  These facets combined create the DPS Meta, wherein the best gear to use in almost all PVE content is high or pure offense.  If you need to survive, it is easier to change strategies, utilities, and traits to be more defensive than it is to change gear.

With that build, very few things will survive Whirling Axes.  It gives itself a lot of damage bonuses and buffs, letting it hit very hard, very fast.  Axe/Axe is the primary weapon setup, because it does the most damage and generates a lot of adrenaline.  The weapon swap can be something else, but I have placed hammer there for two reasons.  First, Hammer has excellent crowd control skills, which are great for breaking the defiance bar of enemies.  Second, Hammer does have a high damage combo that Ill use on the regular.  I go Bulls Charge -> Fierce Blow -> Backbreaker -> Fierce Bow, and this will just murder an enemy.  That is... about all you'll need to know about this build.  There's no other special tricks with it.  For utilities, the Healing Signet is taken because it has good, sustained heal without having to actively use it.  Bull's Charge is a good crowd control skill, and does decent damage.  Endure Pain is a defensive skill, which reduces the damage that you'll take from most attacks to 0 for 4 seconds.  You can change that out for something else if you aren't finding yourself in danger.  Signet of Might gives a passive power bonus, and is never actively used.  Signet of Rage, the elite skill, is used to give yourself a bunch of boons.   

Core Guardian is much more complicated than Core Warrior.  The build I would use looks like this:  

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEt3lVwQYXsJGJO0L/rKA-DSIURUzXG1mCVUB2eWAgKA-e

This build has half the health of the warrior above, and it is more involved, so listen up.  The way that Guardian stays alive is by blocking attacks, and by blinding enemies.  There's a couple of ways to do this.  The primary method is with f1, Virtue of Justice.  The build is set up so it will instantly blind an enemy, and recharge each time an enemy is killed.  Blind is a condition that will cause the enemy's next attack to whiff and miss completely, but it only works on the next attack.  So, if you're fighting an enemy, before they launch an attack press F1 to make it miss.  The backup is survival tactic is Aegis.  Now, Aegis is a boon that works a lot like blind, except instead of debuffing the enemy it buffs yourself, and it will block the next incoming attack.  You'll occasionally get Aegis passively from Virtue of Courage, but you can also get a quick Aegis from the utility skill Advance.  Aside from these two methods, there's a 3-hit block location on the focus weapon, and finally there's Litany of Wrath.  The skill Litany of Wrath heals you for all the damage you do for a short time, and since you'll be doing a lot of damage this makes you nigh invulnerable for a few seconds.  The remaining utility skills are there for damage and boons.  The signet here has a second use, as a crowd control skill to break the defiance bar of certain enemies. 

Something to note about Guardian is that there's a lot more ways to build it, and there's a lot of weapons to go with.  Greatsword is a given, because it does a lot of AoE damage and it has a good toolbox (pulls enemies to you, blinds enemies).  The other weapon can be nearly anything.  I have Scepter + Focus there, to give an option to do ranged damage, and as an additional way to defend yourself.  You can open many fights by using scepter's symbol, using both skills from the focus, and then switching to Greatsword to kill off enemies.  You can also use Sword for a melee version, Hammer for a low-maintenance way of just auto attacking things to death, shield for more group defenses and the ability to stop projectiles, and torch to cleanse condition.  Likewise, and unlike warrior, there is a lot of powerful utilitiy skills that do a lot of different things.  I recommend reading each one, and changing some around as you see the need, because there's a lot of them.

My friend gave me some of that stuff for the Guardian build but he said the Scholar Runes were too expensive so gave me Wurm instead. Which seems pretty good since the Vitality is nice for Guardian I think.

[Hekkenari.5410]

On 12/28/2023 at 6:58 AM, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

I have never played core warrior.  But, if I were, I'd recommend starting with something like this for PVE:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKwAceJlZwSYhsJWJO+SVLNA-DSIUR09PGRS1KVl0zCAUB-e

Know that you can replace the healing signet with Mending if you're dealing with a lot of conditions.  There's a couple of things here that are different from basically every MMO out there.  First, it is the gear choice.  The reason why it is that you'll see gear prefixes with 100% offensive stats is because... they work, really well.  GW2 was designed PVP-up, which means that all of the stats you have at base are good enough to be serviceable even with no investment.  Also, GW2's combat system is more active, encouraging dodging and blocking attacks more than standing around and taking hits.  Out of combat, you'll automatically heal up, so it doesn't matter if you beat an enemy by an inch or by a mile.  These facets combined create the DPS Meta, wherein the best gear to use in almost all PVE content is high or pure offense.  If you need to survive, it is easier to change strategies, utilities, and traits to be more defensive than it is to change gear.

With that build, very few things will survive Whirling Axes.  It gives itself a lot of damage bonuses and buffs, letting it hit very hard, very fast.  Axe/Axe is the primary weapon setup, because it does the most damage and generates a lot of adrenaline.  The weapon swap can be something else, but I have placed hammer there for two reasons.  First, Hammer has excellent crowd control skills, which are great for breaking the defiance bar of enemies.  Second, Hammer does have a high damage combo that Ill use on the regular.  I go Bulls Charge -> Fierce Blow -> Backbreaker -> Fierce Bow, and this will just murder an enemy.  That is... about all you'll need to know about this build.  There's no other special tricks with it.  For utilities, the Healing Signet is taken because it has good, sustained heal without having to actively use it.  Bull's Charge is a good crowd control skill, and does decent damage.  Endure Pain is a defensive skill, which reduces the damage that you'll take from most attacks to 0 for 4 seconds.  You can change that out for something else if you aren't finding yourself in danger.  Signet of Might gives a passive power bonus, and is never actively used.  Signet of Rage, the elite skill, is used to give yourself a bunch of boons.   

Core Guardian is much more complicated than Core Warrior.  The build I would use looks like this:  

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEt3lVwQYXsJGJO0L/rKA-DSIURUzXG1mCVUB2eWAgKA-e

This build has half the health of the warrior above, and it is more involved, so listen up.  The way that Guardian stays alive is by blocking attacks, and by blinding enemies.  There's a couple of ways to do this.  The primary method is with f1, Virtue of Justice.  The build is set up so it will instantly blind an enemy, and recharge each time an enemy is killed.  Blind is a condition that will cause the enemy's next attack to whiff and miss completely, but it only works on the next attack.  So, if you're fighting an enemy, before they launch an attack press F1 to make it miss.  The backup is survival tactic is Aegis.  Now, Aegis is a boon that works a lot like blind, except instead of debuffing the enemy it buffs yourself, and it will block the next incoming attack.  You'll occasionally get Aegis passively from Virtue of Courage, but you can also get a quick Aegis from the utility skill Advance.  Aside from these two methods, there's a 3-hit block location on the focus weapon, and finally there's Litany of Wrath.  The skill Litany of Wrath heals you for all the damage you do for a short time, and since you'll be doing a lot of damage this makes you nigh invulnerable for a few seconds.  The remaining utility skills are there for damage and boons.  The signet here has a second use, as a crowd control skill to break the defiance bar of certain enemies. 

Something to note about Guardian is that there's a lot more ways to build it, and there's a lot of weapons to go with.  Greatsword is a given, because it does a lot of AoE damage and it has a good toolbox (pulls enemies to you, blinds enemies).  The other weapon can be nearly anything.  I have Scepter + Focus there, to give an option to do ranged damage, and as an additional way to defend yourself.  You can open many fights by using scepter's symbol, using both skills from the focus, and then switching to Greatsword to kill off enemies.  You can also use Sword for a melee version, Hammer for a low-maintenance way of just auto attacking things to death, shield for more group defenses and the ability to stop projectiles, and torch to cleanse condition.  Likewise, and unlike warrior, there is a lot of powerful utilitiy skills that do a lot of different things.  I recommend reading each one, and changing some around as you see the need, because there's a lot of them.

Hammer is a really good option for guardians after the latest patch, so much so that I'd recommend using it instead of greatsword (or with it).

[Quickpawmaud.6374]

Just now, Hekkenari.5410 said:

Hammer is a really good option for guardians after the latest patch, so much so that I'd recommend using it instead of greatsword (or with it).

This is my friend BTW lol. He got me into the game.

[Quickpawmaud.6374]

2 hours ago, slpr.2647 said:

i saw a good video today about how to test classes and their elite specs, and i never knew/thought of this.  create a character, dont boost it, and go into the pvp lobby, it boosts to 80 and you have access to all gear and weapons. head to the training dummies and smash away.  test everything out that you cant think of, weapon combos, stats, util skills, everything. find something you dont like , delete and try another class. no gold spent on weapons and armor. 

Yes Hekk told me about this before. There are not that many classes I am interested in tbh though. Like Warrior and Guardian are the main ones really. 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

13 hours ago, Quickpawmaud.6374 said:

I thought Might was something you would want to keep stacked as high as possible so spamming Signet of Might, For Great Justice, and Signet of Rage as much as possible would give you more damage. Seems like the Signets are the best skills for Warrior. Most builds seem to use at least 2 of them.

Technically, but might is something that other people stack up on you.  There's a lot of other builds out there from other professions that just drop might passively, so if you're with allies you'll be getting might and fury.  Because of this, for Warrior it is better to almost never activate the Signets.  The exception to this is Signet of Rage, but that is build specific.  Later warrior builds with the Elite Specializations don't activate Signet of Rage.

The traits and skills were chosen for this reason.  If you wanted to buff yourself more but have less raw strength, there's a couple of traits you can pick.  In the Strength line, take Forceful Greatsword instead of Great Fortitude, in the Tactics line take Empowered Allies and Phalanx Strength.  Do this, and you will generate a lot of might for yourself and for nearby teammates.  

Edited December 29, 2023 by Blood Red Arachnid.2493