Guardian advice and gear

[EpicName.4523]

I've played this game for a few weeks, made tons of alts to see what works for me and finally decided to lvl a Guardian to 80. The profession seems noob friendly, has 2 viable elite specs and I think I'll enjoy being tank/support hybrid with dps options.

 

If I understand correctly, DH relies a lot on ranged combat with berserker gear. This can be easily obtained with karma from the Orr temples, no problem.

 

Firebrand, on the other hand, seems to require "condi gear", mostly to get maximum burn uptime and from what I've read majority of the people recommend viper stuff until you reach that. Others say celestial is overall the best because it offers nice balance of stats.

 

1. So, celestial or viper for world roaming and fractals? Full viper will make you squishy, right? Maybe mix it up with soldier for survivability?

 

2. Since DH has more easily accessible gear, is it better to max it first instead of FB?

 

3. What is the best set to buy with karma for a new firebrand? Carrion, rabid, rampager?

I also heard that you can buy specific pieces of gear cheap from the trading post if you know what you are looking for. I got the impression that instead of searching for gear with specific prefix, it is better to seek unique items which will be almost as good and at a lower price. Anyone have a list?

[Oglaf.1074]

Tank gear is kinda dead. You go full damage and rely on whatever innate defensive ability the class has - not to mention that killing things quickly is a sure fire way to reduce the damage they deal to you!

 

Edit: I would also highly recommended against blowing all that karma on the gear - it is far too valuable and you ought to be able to pick up Berserker real cheap from the TP.

 

Edit2: Definitely work on Dragon Hunter first. Viper gear is notoriously annoying/expensive to get - especially in comparison to good ol’ Berserker.

[Eros.6801]

1. If you are going to play Firebrand then Celes are more into high-end WvW and this stat is extremely hard to obtain, Viper you were right, it make you squishy but its required in high level fractals similar to Grieving, these 2 stats are pretty annoying to obtain.

 

2. Depends, DH are more into DPS aspect while FB are more into a mix between supporting and DPS just pick whichever suit you, I recommended FB tbh since you mentioned you are enjoying support hydrid build.

 

3. I highly recommended either full Carrion or mixing Carrion/Rampager for beginner, Carrion heavy set are pretty cheap to get on TP so i think better not waste your karma, Carrion offer you enough HP up to 14k ~15k while having decent DPS.

 

- This here is a pretty fun power FB build to run and the gear parth are affordable :

 

- Last honest advice, you should put this on hold until tomorrow's balance patch, im not so sure there going to be one tho but hope so, everything might or might not be falling apart after that.

[EpicName.4523]

Why "waste" karma? From old posts had the impression it is mostly useless after 80?

[Blude.6812]

> @"EpicName.4523" said:

> Why "waste" karma? From old posts had the impression it is mostly useless after 80?

 

Nope, wish I had more, but keep using it up with the Pact supply agents---ka-ching!!

Love my power DH.

 

 

[Oglaf.1074]

> @"EpicName.4523" said:

> Why "waste" karma? From old posts had the impression it is mostly useless after 80?

 

Well, for one the “new” Living World areas such as Bitterfrost Frontier allows you to get Ascended accessories with the prefix of your choosing for Karma + Unbound Magic. This is a far, faaar better investment for your Karma as far as gear is involved.

 

Secondly those armour pieces are extremely overpriced. If you were to instead use one of the “Karma-to-gold”-methods floating around you could probably buy tons of full sets of Berserker for the same Karma turned to gold.

 

 

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Toughness only mitigates power damage, condi damage bypasses toughness. Also, numerous big bad monsters key in on who has the highest toughness value. First time we tried to run the Vale Guardian raid, our healer druid happened to have the highest toughness, so he kept drawing VG's aggro. Needless to say, we did not have a good evening that night... Personally, I take vitality over toughness - condi damage ignores toughness, but it can't ignore extra health any more than power damage can. Having said that...soldier's gear has been pretty effective on my Chronomancer (from the level 80 boost).

 

If you do go celestial, you'll probably want to consider trinkets that increase your concentration and/or your expertise. Concentration impacts boon duration and expertise impacts condition duration. Concentration and expertise are NOT included in the stats that celestial give you.