Guardian - Merciful Frontline

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Welcome to the Builds Archive. See the ones that gathered dust, were orphaned by their original writers, or became obsolete by balance patches. We keep the orphan builds together and salute the veteran builds that held a position in the good, great, or meta categories.

Focused on: Ground control, Healing, Support, Utility.

Designed for:

World vs World

Overview

The EU meta build for a sustained 'ball' style frontline designed to be a powerful healer and resurrect bot. Has extremely high personal and group sustain at a slight cost to damage and boon up-time. Used by many EU guilds including [Ash], [vE], and [vR].

Skill Bar

HammerHealingUtilityElite

Mace/Shield

Weapon Variants

Staff

Staff

Healing

Utility

Elite

½

Wave of Wrath

Make a powerful shock wave, hitting up to five foes.

Damage: 222

Number of Targets: 5

Range: 600

½

3

Orb of Light

Fire a moving orb of light that damages enemies and heals allies it touches. Detonate the orb to heal nearby allies.

Damage: 444

Healing: 271

Number of Targets: 5

Range: 1,200

¾

15

Symbol of Swiftness

Symbol. Sear a mystic symbol into the target area, damaging foes and granting swiftness to allies.

Damage (5x): 185

Swiftness (4s): 33% Movement Speed

Number of Targets: 5

Symbol Duration: 4 seconds

Symbol Radius: 180

Combo Field: Light

Range: 1,200

2½

20

Empower

Channel might to yourself and allies around you. Heal nearby allies when it ends.

Healing: 1,500

₁₂Might (10s): +360 Power, +360 Condition Damage

Number of Targets: 5

Radius: 600

1

40

Line of Warding

Ward. Create a line in front of you that foes cannot cross.

Duration: 5 seconds

Range: 1,200

• Staff can be used instead of hammer or Mace/Shield to provide a very powerful healing burst and additional might through empowers, on top of its general usefulness through symbols and CC.

Skill Variants

Utility

• Merciful Intervention

⇒ "Retreat!" When running with larger numbers and unable to get use out of teleporting to downs (e.g. they are dying too fast off tag to solo res)

⇒ Contemplation of Purity When running in a very tight group with many guardians to assist in the healing and resurrecting.

⇒ Hallowed Ground When Stability is limited.

• Purging Flames ⇒ Wall of Reflection If projectile defense is needed.

Specializations

Valor:

Smiter's Boon Strength in Numbers Altruistic Healing

Variants

• Communal Defenses Only one Guardian per party needs to take Strength in Numbers since its effect does not stack, and Communal Defenses gives excellent passive healing.

Honor:

Protective Reviver Pure of Heart Force of Will

Variants

• Honorable Staff For staff builds.
• Pure of Voice Reduces healing output but brings more boon uptime and condition clear. Should be taken with "Retreat!".

Virtues:

Master of Consecrations Absolute Resolution Indomitable Courage

Equipment

6x

Superior Rune of Mercy

18x

Mighty WvW Infusion

Variants

Stats

• Swap Celestial for Crusader's for an easier to obtain stat.
• Add Commander's or Marauder's for extra damage.
• Add Wanderer's, Minstrel's or Soldier's for extra defense.
  • Add more Cleric's or Minstrel's for additional healing focus at the cost of damage. Particularly for GvGs, more bunker focused gear aims for around 1k healing power.

Infusions

• 18x
  Healing WvW Infusion

  Healing WvW Infusion

  +5 Healing Power -1% Damage taken from Guards and Lords
  for bunker builds.

Sigils

• Superior Sigil of Energy

  9

  Superior Sigil of Energy

  Gain 50% of your endurance when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (Cooldown: 9s)
  ⇒
  Superior Sigil of Renewal

  9

  Superior Sigil of Renewal

  Heal Nearby Allies on Weapon Swap (360 radius). (Cooldown: 9s)
  At 370+ Healing Power, Selfless Daring out scales the healing of Renewal Sigil, however Renewal can be useful for inexperienced players.
• Superior Sigil of Concentration

  9

  Superior Sigil of Concentration

  Boons you apply last 33% longer for 7 seconds when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (Cooldown: 9s)
  for Stability uptime.
• Superior Sigil of Transference

  Superior Sigil of Transference

  Outgoing healing effectiveness is increased by 10%.

Consumables

Food

• Plate of Mussels Gnashblade

  Plate of Mussels Gnashblade

  Nourishment (30 min):

  +10% Damage Reduction+70 Concentrationn+10% Experience from kills

  Consumable
  Defensive option.
• Fried Oyster Sandwich

  Fried Oyster Sandwich

  Nourishment (30 m):

  +10% Damage Reduction+70 Power+10 Experience from kills

  Consumable
  Offensive option.
• Loaf of Saffron Bread

  Loaf of Saffron Bread

  Nourishment (30 m):

  Incoming damage reduced by 20% while stunned, knocked down, or knocked back.-20% condition duration+10 Experience from kills

  Consumable
  Alternate defensive option vs condi pressure.

Utility

• Magnanimous Sharpening Stone

  Magnanimous Sharpening Stone

  Nourishment (30 m):

  Gain Power equal to 3% of your VitalityGain Power equal to 3% of your Toughness+10% Experience from Kills

  Consumable
  Offensive option.
• Magnanimous Maintenance Oil

  Magnanimous Maintenance Oil

  Nourishment (30 m):

  Gain Concentration equal to 3% of your VitalityGain Concentration equal to 3% of your Toughness+10% Experience from Kills

  Consumable
  Support option.

Usage

Hammer

• Rotation: Engage with Zealot's Embrace, Virtue of Justice and immediately after use Mighty Blow. Catch enemies with Ring of Warding. Continue autoattacking until Mighty Blow is ready or until you regroup, in which case save Mighty Blow to blast Water Fields.
• Mighty Blow is a blast finisher - use it on combo fields like fire, water, and chill.

Mace/Shield

• Use Mace/Shield to support your group and create heavy burst CC and healing. The autoattack provides very strong AoE healing.
• Rotation: Autoattack continuously throughout the fight. When bombing the enemy in Mace, use your Symbol of Faith to give an extremely high healing Regeneration plus AoE pressure. Then activate on your shield Shield of Judgment for a burst heal to allies and protection, followed by Protector's Strike for a high damage skill and a small damage mitigation. Either when you see a downed enemy or ally, use Shield of Absorption to push back a res/stomp attempt, either double tapping for a large burst AoE heal or channeling for projectile defense.

Staff

• Use Line of Warding to disrupt enemies and split players away from the main group whilst also stripping some stability.
• Double tapping Orb of Light will immediately activate its chain skill Detonate Orb of Light, a good group AoE heal if you are under heavy pressure. With this build this is an even more powerful heal than usual and should be used to try save low allies.
• Stack might for your team with Empower. It will also heal you for a huge amount because of Altruistic Healing, plus a huge AoE healing thanks to Force of Will and Sigil of Transference.
• When running to/from objectives, speed up your zerg with Symbol of Swiftness.
• Stack might for your team with Empower.

Resurrecting

• Resurrecting plays a huge part in this build. Your Protective Reviver paired with
  Superior Rune of Mercy

  Superior Rune of Mercy

  (1): +25 Toughness (2): Gain up to 400 toughness while revivng allies, based on your level. (3): +50 Toughness (4): You resurrect allies with 30% more health. (5): +100 Toughness (6): You revive allied players 20% faster.
  makes your revive speed extremely quick, but also gives allies huge amounts of health when they are revived, along with protection and a burst heal from the Aegis they are granted. Focus on saving your allies above all else, as long as it will not cost you your own life.

General

• Healing your allies is another huge focus of this build. Be mindful of their HP at all times and use Virtue of Resolve to burst cleanse heavy condition pressure and provide a very large on demand heal.
• Use Renewed Focus to escape damage. Renewed Focus will also refresh your virtues, meaning it is best used when all virtues are on cooldown. You can use virtues whilst channeling this skill to get the most effectiveness out of its cooldown resetting.
• Use Purging Flames when you are being overwhelmed with conditions. Try to use it during fights and not on regroups, where you may block allies from blasting water fields.
• "Stand Your Ground!" - gives area Stability to help secure stomps/resurrection or mitigate the effectiveness of an enemy CC (try to use SYG proactively, before a bomb). It is only a stun break for yourself, not your party.
• Virtue of Courage is your -and your party's- panic stability and area break stun. Use it only after "Stand Your Ground!" is on cooldown and stability it urgently needed.
• Applying boons to party members and yourself will heal you via Altruistic Healing

Gameplay Videos

• YouTube:
  [vR]Hybrid
• YouTube:
  [bM] Falx