Guild Wars 2

I’ve a Guardian and Elementalist at 80, and I’m thinking which one should I “main” – the one I’ll spend most of time/resources with. Both are fun to play and I can’t decide between one.

I’d like to hear opinions about these two professions and their utilities in dungeons in general (fractals too), which you’d rather group with and why.
Any stories are also welcome, I’m looking for a bunch of opinions so I can decide between the one I find the most useful.

Also, if you can speak from experience, what sort of builds and skills you expect them to bring when grouping for dungeons. Such as Empowering Might for Guardians (I don’t use this, though I think most people would want this from a Guardian) or Staff for Empower/Heals, or a combo Elementalist for massive might uptime, etc

Thanks!

guardian is the best class for dungeons expecially difficult one…..
ele is a toned down guardian imho….

It has AoE potential that can be good in some dungeons but 99% groups will want a guardian in their group while ele is meh.

Whatever you feel like playing.

Don’t let players decide for you. Flip a coin instead. Choose your role(Support, dps, control) and build it yourself or find a build online.

elementalists have a higher skill cap to be good at than guardians, so you’ll have to work harder to be good in a group with them

its not the skill cap….

Ele have several drawbacks in PvE….

Guardians have severals advantages they don t have in PvP.

Also just look at mapchat or gw2lfg
“looking for guardian…..” everywhere

LordByron.8369:

its not the skill cap….

Ele have several drawbacks in PvE….

Guardians have severals advantages they don t have in PvP.

Also just look at mapchat or gw2lfg
“looking for guardian…..” everywhere

Well you’re certainly welcome to believe what you want is the cause.

Having both an 80 ele and 80 guardian I believe the guardian is far easier to play well, so that’s why they’re more popular (and better played) than the average elementalist. This is why groups want them – bad experiences with bad elementalists.

Elementalists are an extremely powerful class in the right hands, though.

I have both ele and guard… aaaaaand Im playing both

Both classes are really good to play in dungeons. If it were me trying to make that decision, I’d choose one, then listen carefully to myself to see if I wanna change my mind. Then choose the other, and see if I wanna change my mind comparatively more or less than the other. Hahaha, if you can sort of understand that thought process…

In the end, I think you should pick one, let’s say Guardian. But I think you should keep your elementalist upgraded as best you can so that you can use both.

Sometimes you’ll want to have your guardian because you’ll see a dungeon group you’re in needs a heavy to get in mobs’ faces and create a focal point for others to AoE things down.

Sometimes you’ll want to be Elementalist so you can provide AoEs or utility/support. Nice thing about dungeons is how you can choose to swap characters if you need to.

Shimond.2478:

LordByron.8369:

its not the skill cap….

Ele have several drawbacks in PvE….

Guardians have severals advantages they don t have in PvP.

Also just look at mapchat or gw2lfg
“looking for guardian…..” everywhere

Well you’re certainly welcome to believe what you want is the cause.

Having both an 80 ele and 80 guardian I believe the guardian is far easier to play well, so that’s why they’re more popular (and better played) than the average elementalist. This is why groups want them – bad experiences with bad elementalists.

Elementalists are an extremely powerful class in the right hands, though.

Why?
AoE, support, healing, crowd control, damage, survivability, anti projectiles…..

compare the 2 classes with also duration and CD.
One of them will easily prevail in MOST (aoe obviously is in ele’s favor, but i would put all other in favor of guard).

ele’s need so much help… so if you enjoy both take guardian… only reason to main an ele is that you are a magic kitten and there is no other class which satisfy your need for magical effects so its not really a choice for us :/ (would switch class instantly if there was a magical cool effect looking class which was actually good, necro’s are really sick in comparison but their visual effects are just so blend compared to ele… sad sad day :P )

Agreed. Eles have a higher skill cap to play. Those who look down and are trying to deface them probably don’t have that higher skill to play them correctly. I’d rather play ele in PvE and PvP than a guardian. If you were to ask me. I’d say ele wrecks PvE more than a guard could. But, honestly my main is an ele and I’m proud of it. I’ve never had such an easy class to play in PvE and PvP. It’s cool…I’m just a magic kitten right? Since I’m soooo into cool effects and such…

LordByron.8369:

Also just look at mapchat or gw2lfg
“looking for guardian…..” everywhere

Only in fractals, and it’s all because of a couple reflection skills.

Yaki.9563:

LordByron.8369:

Also just look at mapchat or gw2lfg
“looking for guardian…..” everywhere

Only in fractals, and it’s all because of a couple reflection skills.

not crowd control skills?
Not that uberfast healing for all party?
Not that Aegis virtue that turns your “o shh…i missed i’ll die” into a “block”
or maybe those free might stacks you don t have to be near him to get (ele gives a lot also but they are shorter and needs positioning so most will miss)
Maybe the stability for everyone?

A guardian makes any dungeon noticeably easier.

Smth.9140:

I have both ele and guard… aaaaaand Im playing both

Unfortunately I need to decide which character will earn all my laurels/time towards dungeons and other unique stuff.

Aren’t there any (mis)conceptions about these two professions?

I read in a post some time ago that when they group with a Staff Elementalist, they think “this will take forever”.
Or in another where I read “boons felt light, even though we had two guardians in our group so I don’t know what they were specced for” or something like it.
Of course, these were just one person’s opinions, but I’d like to hear if there’s more people who think the same or something along these lines.

I’d like to play the professions I choose as I want and be as useful as I can, but I’m not willing to change how I play or what I’d like to do just because other people says so.
(This sounds ironic when it seems I’m asking which profession should I play, but I just want to hear opinions)

If you sit in one attune all day and spec yourself only towards that attune you will perform very badly and be one of ‘those elementalists’ that everyone doesn’t want in their groups.

If you learn how to attune dance and drop combos/boons you can be an incredible asset to the group in both a support and damage role (at the same time, even).

This is what people mean by the ‘skill cap’ to an elementalist. If you play an elementalist like you do a guardian you’re going to fail pretty bad. It’s just a lot more effort to get good results out of (relatively – I’m not saying it’s tremendously difficult to play).

Pro Ele < Pro Guardian
Pro Ele > Noob Guardian
Noob Ele < Noob Guardian

Simple fact. No matter how good you play an ele, if you put the same player on a guardian and learn it to the same extent, they’ll offer more to the party than an ele will. Don’t get me wrong, I love ele, i have over 800 hrs on an ele, but guardians are just gods when it comes to team support.

Guardian and Elementalist are my top two favorite professions to play. For party situations, I think the Guardian is generally more useful. That is not to say Elementalist is not useful at all. Here’s some of the things I look at in terms of usefulness:

Guardian

• Tanky/Can Hold Aggro
• Anti-projectiles
• Team Healing/Damage Reduction
• Quickness from Tome if needed
• Stacks a bit of might without disrupting DPS — on auto attack and virtue of justice when traited
• Team stability/swiftness/aegis
• Frequent blinds
• Zone control with hammer
• Powerful Condition Removal
• Can push/pull mobs

Elementalist

• Team Healing/Minor Damage Reduction
• Stacks might with combo fields — sacrifices some active DPS in doing so
• Powerful Condition Removal
• Team Swiftness
• Area Control/Snares with staff
• Large AoEs with staff

Long story short — I like to support my team and the Guardian offers the most options of reducing damage across the board.