Guardian - Merciful Frontline

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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

⇒

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)

⇒

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

⇒

When

Stability is limited.

⇒
If projectile defense is needed.

Specializations

Variants

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

Variants

For staff builds.
Reduces healing output but brings more boon uptime and condition clear. Should be taken with
.

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,
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
,
and immediately after use
. Catch enemies with
. Continue autoattacking until
is ready or until you regroup, in which case save
to blast Water Fields.
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
to give an extremely high healing Regeneration plus AoE pressure. Then activate on your shield
for a burst heal to allies and protection, followed by
for a high damage skill and a small damage mitigation. Either when you see a downed enemy or ally, use
to push back a res/stomp attempt, either double tapping for a large burst AoE heal or channeling for projectile defense.

Staff

Use
to disrupt enemies and split players away from the main group whilst also stripping some stability.
Double tapping
will immediately activate its chain skill
, 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
. It will also heal you for a huge amount because of
, plus a huge AoE healing thanks to
and Sigil of Transference.
When running to/from objectives, speed up your zerg with
.
Stack might for your team with
.

Resurrecting

Resurrecting plays a huge part in this build. Your
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
to burst cleanse heavy condition pressure and provide a very large on demand heal.
Use
to escape damage.
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
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.
- 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.
is your -and your party's- panic stability and area break stun. Use it only after
is on cooldown and stability it urgently needed.
Applying boons to party members and yourself will heal you via

Gameplay Videos

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

Build