Guild Wars 2

Do you play one yourself in Dungeons?

Or do you often face a Guardian in your group, if so – what do you think?

Shouldn’t this thread belong in the Guardian sub-forum? https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian

this really is a guardian subforum thread but the short answer is

yes and yes

… its never wrong to bring a guardian along

I dont think its wrong to ask other people that run Dungeons alot, what they think about Guardians

Depends on the Guardian:
P/V/T wannabe Tank without Support = horrible.
Sharing boons and healing like candy = I like.

btw, this thread belongs to the dungeon forum. It’s not about Guardians, it’s about feelings for Guardians in Dungeons.

Molch.2078:

Depends on the Guardian:
P/V/T wannabe Tank without Support = horrible.
Sharing boons and healing like candy = I like.

btw, this thread belongs to the dungeon forum. It’s not about Guardians, it’s about feelings for Guardians in Dungeons.

Thanks for this.

More opinions please!

There is a reason that guardians are dime a dozen, namely that the class is more useful than the problem between the keyboard and the chair. For most dungeons, you don’t need to play well to be useful. You also don’t need to know much about the class, the dungeon, or the game to stay alive in many dungeons. For other dungeons where the class alone is no longer enough, I have a very large blocklist to help me.

Molch.2078:

Depends on the Guardian:
P/V/T wannabe Tank without Support = horrible.
Sharing boons and healing like candy = I like.

btw, this thread belongs to the dungeon forum. It’s not about Guardians, it’s about feelings for Guardians in Dungeons.

Boon duration is affected mostly by runes and no sane guardian would go healing power armor as it leaves them being squishie or lacking damage to even get drops. so Power, Vitality, Toughness is the way to go.

People should not comment about a class they know nothing off.

KeepersWay.4159:

Molch.2078:

Depends on the Guardian:
P/V/T wannabe Tank without Support = horrible.
Sharing boons and healing like candy = I like.

btw, this thread belongs to the dungeon forum. It’s not about Guardians, it’s about feelings for Guardians in Dungeons.

Boon duration is affected mostly by runes and no sane guardian would go healing power armor as it leaves them being squishie or lacking damage to even get drops. so Power, Vitality, Toughness is the way to go.

People should not comment about a class they know nothing off.

Lacking damage to even get drops…

Much like Warriors, we’re better than everyone else.

That’s obviously a problem but I’d like to see buffs to other classes rather than nerfs to us.

Someone who’s more pro than I am may have an opinion about this, but I like the way my guardian plays so…..

I run a guardian for 40% of my dungeon runs, when we’re doing things that need the extra support, or the other guardian in my usual group is unavailable.

I run cleric’s gear (Healing power / toughness / power), and yes, I consider my role to be keeping the party on their feet. Damage is not my job, but I do keep on top of my damage output and I keep the pressure on with burning while I’m cycling virtues. Our group tends to have 1-2 warriors who will pour way more damage out than I will, my job is to keep them on their feet doing it.

Its rare that my static group doesn’t have a guardian or two in the party, and there are some dungeons that can become uncomfortable without one as support on most other classes is lacking, but I’ll be honest, no one in my static group runs a mesmer, and the lot of us are collectively leveling Eles at the moment to see what we can rotate in.

KeepersWay.4159:

Boon duration is affected mostly by runes and no sane guardian would go healing power armor as it leaves them being squishie or lacking damage to even get drops. so Power, Vitality, Toughness is the way to go.

People should not comment about a class they know nothing off.

PVT is useless in a pve scenario unless your goal is to solo tank in open world, and only has minor uses in pvp areas, regardless of profession. People should not comment about effective builds they know nothing of.

As for guardians, pretty much always welcome by me, doubly so in fractals. Provided they don’t sit on staff the entire run. Their damage isn’t bad, better than most if you know what you’re doing (discounting warrior of course). It’s more the side that, you don’t meet guardians who believe they Can do damage.

KeepersWay.4159:

Molch.2078:

Depends on the Guardian:
P/V/T wannabe Tank without Support = horrible.
Sharing boons and healing like candy = I like.

btw, this thread belongs to the dungeon forum. It’s not about Guardians, it’s about feelings for Guardians in Dungeons.

Boon duration is affected mostly by runes and no sane guardian would go healing power armor as it leaves them being squishie or lacking damage to even get drops. so Power, Vitality, Toughness is the way to go.

People should not comment about a class they know nothing off.

Well I run full clerics, and I definitely don’t consider myself squishy. I’m not leading with damage but I do support my group very well. Your high Health pool makes you tankier. My lower health pool but higher healin power makes me and my whole group tankier.

That and it’s more sustainable too for those longer battles, as I get my hp back quicker, whereas once your high health is gone, it’s tougher to get back.

I understand that regaining health is useful but people have to recognize that healing power is a horrid stat in its current state ( the scaling is garbage) and you are more useful for your team by providing boons (through useful runes) and mitigation (being tanky) and removing conditions. I would rely on healing power if it wasen’t nerfed so hard and honestly I only find healing power useful for really high fractals (+40) which currently have no incentive. but then again that’s just my opinion.

My mentality is to prevent the damage not react in order to dilute it.

People that think pvt is useless for pvp have not tried it. try to find out about the bunker build if you care.

I have a shout Guardian who (I’d like to think) is very useful in fractals. He runs PVT armor from AC tokens / karma with full Soldier runes (last one removes condition every shout). The shouts I use are Hold the Line, Save Yourselves, and either Retreat, Stand Your Ground. In the third utility slot, sometimes I’ll use Wall of Reflection (projectile fights) or Battle Roar (extra dps for not hard fights).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYgyC33xKEf4ERWhVi9AjwPjXPcIFZIA;T4Ag0ynEOJdS9kyJqsMZJyymlLLZWrPGEA

GS for grouping mobs so runs go faster, staff for might/healing when I’m low or a teammate is low. My dps isn’t bad either haha

Basically this build just keeps removing conditions and buffing the group, plus absorbing lots of damage or mitigating it (Aegis spam w/ retreat, Aegis, then Renewed Focus and Aegis again). And you remove 2 conditions every 10 seconds passively if you are eating a lot of them or use Save Yourselves and bring them from your allies to you.

Guardian is incredibly amazing in dungeons. My thief can stealth, smoke screen, and dps — that’s about it :P

they are a nice class to bring along, but very boring to play in my opinion.

KeepersWay.4159:

… high fractals (+40) which currently have no incentive. but then again that’s just my opinion.

Loot wise, low level ones are not even worth doing.

Power Prec Tough Shout + Rune of the Soldier guardian here. I think we are in a pretty good spot when it comes to PvE (maybe a bit over the top) but not as good as warriors. With the way PvE Fights are currently designed, we range from useful to insanely strong based on the encounter, but lack in damage and combo fields to make up for it. I’m always happy to see a fellow guardian in party unless we are already 2 but I value much more players, rather than classes.

By the way since there are way too many indoctrinated players I’m making good use of this occasion by emphasizing how guardians are NOT dedicated tanks or healers, you don’t NEED them everywhere you go and if you die with a guardian around it’s your kitten fault, as we have no taunts and little control over aggro.

Fractals are a lot easier with a guardian in a group be it a “wannabe tank with PTV” or any other build as their abilities always help. I started playing a guardian and equipped it with cleric’s armor because I like healing others. I haven’t done fractals with it yet, but in any other dungeon I don’t have any problems taking dmg and keeping others healed. And also guardians always have power in their equipment doing a fair amount of damage (except you run vit/prec/healing, which would be kitten imo^^).

So far I like guardian (although the altruistic healing is a bit weak).

KeepersWay.4159:

Molch.2078:

Depends on the Guardian:
P/V/T wannabe Tank without Support = horrible.
Sharing boons and healing like candy = I like.

btw, this thread belongs to the dungeon forum. It’s not about Guardians, it’s about feelings for Guardians in Dungeons.

Boon duration is affected mostly by runes and no sane guardian would go healing power armor as it leaves them being squishie or lacking damage to even get drops. so Power, Vitality, Toughness is the way to go.

People should not comment about a class they know nothing off.

So you do bad damage AND don’t provide healing or boons? What do you do, exactly?

P/V/T is the worst non-condition stat combination you can wear for guardian.

blinkxzero.8035:

I have a shout Guardian who (I’d like to think) is very useful in fractals. He runs PVT armor from AC tokens / karma with full Soldier runes (last one removes condition every shout). The shouts I use are Hold the Line, Save Yourselves, and either Retreat, Stand Your Ground. In the third utility slot, sometimes I’ll use Wall of Reflection (projectile fights) or Battle Roar (extra dps for not hard fights).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYgyC33xKEf4ERWhVi9AjwPjXPcIFZIA;T4Ag0ynEOJdS9kyJqsMZJyymlLLZWrPGEA

GS for grouping mobs so runs go faster, staff for might/healing when I’m low or a teammate is low. My dps isn’t bad either haha

Yes it is, stop deluding yourself. You bring decent utility but the Vitality is largely wasted and you do bad DPS. You’d be much better doing the exact same thing with Cleric’s gear.

SSalp.6423:

And also guardians always have power in their equipment doing a fair amount of damage (except you run vit/prec/healing, which would be kitten imo^^).

So far I like guardian (although the altruistic healing is a bit weak).

The reason you AH healing is weak is because you don’t have much precision for crit, which procs EM. It’s the AH/EM synergy that makes AH so powerful.

The reason to run Vit/Pre/Heal over Cleric’s is so that you crit more and proc EM. Your damage is bad either way, but proccing EM is very useful if you build around boon duration and crit even without the AH synergy. Yes, Vit isn’t as good as Tou but that’s the price you pay for the superior utility from Pre vs. Pow.

what i want a guardian to do:

form a front line together with a warrior so they take the main aggro.

not moving to much if possible so i can lay down heals, and other means of helping the guardian more accurate.

in boss fights providing us with projectile reflections ( having the wall of reflection on the dredge fractal make it go so much more quickly. )

that is the ultimate guardian for me. the best gear for this is probably pvt gear, but having some knights thrown in there will just help the AH so i don’t know.
i’m usually against healing power because everybody have there own heals. and the most efficient heals is combos in water fields.

Yaki.9563:

blinkxzero.8035:

I have a shout Guardian who (I’d like to think) is very useful in fractals. He runs PVT armor from AC tokens / karma with full Soldier runes (last one removes condition every shout). The shouts I use are Hold the Line, Save Yourselves, and either Retreat, Stand Your Ground. In the third utility slot, sometimes I’ll use Wall of Reflection (projectile fights) or Battle Roar (extra dps for not hard fights).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYgyC33xKEf4ERWhVi9AjwPjXPcIFZIA;T4Ag0ynEOJdS9kyJqsMZJyymlLLZWrPGEA

GS for grouping mobs so runs go faster, staff for might/healing when I’m low or a teammate is low. My dps isn’t bad either haha

Yes it is, stop deluding yourself. You bring decent utility but the Vitality is largely wasted and you do bad DPS. You’d be much better doing the exact same thing with Cleric’s gear.

Using Berserker jewelry to offset some of the DPS loss from the rest of the armor. Yeah he doesn’t hit as hard as my full Berserker thief, but the damage from the Guardian is pretty stable and isn’t as terrible as you imply.

They are great for dungeons but I think they are the most boring class. I rarely play mine and it’s level 80 with 3 sets of exotic armor.

Yaki.9563:

KeepersWay.4159:

Molch.2078:

Depends on the Guardian:
P/V/T wannabe Tank without Support = horrible.
Sharing boons and healing like candy = I like.

btw, this thread belongs to the dungeon forum. It’s not about Guardians, it’s about feelings for Guardians in Dungeons.

Boon duration is affected mostly by runes and no sane guardian would go healing power armor as it leaves them being squishie or lacking damage to even get drops. so Power, Vitality, Toughness is the way to go.

People should not comment about a class they know nothing off.

So you do bad damage AND don’t provide healing or boons? What do you do, exactly?

P/V/T is the worst non-condition stat combination you can wear for guardian.

Incorrect it depends on the build and weapon and cantrips. Most classes that do higher dps can’t be be compared to a gaurdians because they’re usually downed before a gaurdian.

Class is irrelevant it’s all about listening, playing as a team and your choice of skills for each fight. Gear is also a factor.

I just got Dungeon Master with my Guardian, I did every path with him and no other class.

Armor: Exotic Berserker Armor W/Dolyak Runes

Rings ect: Go toughness base with ruby gems

Build: 0/5/30/30/5 Altruistic Healing and Empowering Might

Foods: Maintenance Oil and Omnomberry Pies

Notes: Every time you give anyone a boon including yourself you will heal yourself. High precision is necessary because every time you crit your party gets a stack of might which is a boon and it heals you. Any virtue you use will heal you as well. This is not the ideal fractal build but for dungeons it works best for me. If you are looking for cheap armor just do CoF runs every day. People complain about lack of DPS. Sure warrior can do great damage but you can get your Guardian over 3000 attack fairly easy. Dolyak runes are pricey over 4 gold so save up if you can.

I am not sure why people say playing guardian is dull. I think its a personal opinion on how you like to play the game. I love it and prefer it to playing any other class. The only thing I dislike about the guardian is their range abilities or lack there of…

Tip: Try to bring one of each weapon you can use in your pack with you if at all possible. You don’t want to be caught in a situation where you are just standing there doing nothing.

Drew.1865:

Yaki.9563:

KeepersWay.4159:

Molch.2078:

Depends on the Guardian:
P/V/T wannabe Tank without Support = horrible.
Sharing boons and healing like candy = I like.

btw, this thread belongs to the dungeon forum. It’s not about Guardians, it’s about feelings for Guardians in Dungeons.

Boon duration is affected mostly by runes and no sane guardian would go healing power armor as it leaves them being squishie or lacking damage to even get drops. so Power, Vitality, Toughness is the way to go.

People should not comment about a class they know nothing off.

So you do bad damage AND don’t provide healing or boons? What do you do, exactly?

P/V/T is the worst non-condition stat combination you can wear for guardian.

Incorrect it depends on the build and weapon and cantrips. Most classes that do higher dps can’t be be compared to a gaurdians because they’re usually downed before a gaurdian.

Class is irrelevant it’s all about listening, playing as a team and your choice of skills for each fight. Gear is also a factor.

Guardians don’t have cantrips. It doesn’t do well for your credibility.

To people who said that PVT armor is usseles i advice that they make some test with gears and JEWELS, is not only the armor, is the mix of armor, jewels and runes to keep a good balance.

I wear PVT armor ( Emrald Orbs ) mix with Berseker Jewel and i make a good damage, i can share boons ( Vigorius Preccision, Strenght in Numbers Empoworing Might) and good deffense and life.

20 Zeal
30 Valor
20 Honor

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/8840/dsfaadfk.jpg

I run a mace/shield/focus guardian and can keep party and myself alive. So guardians are great additions for dungeons as long as they realize that they are close range support/light heal and not trying to be warriors.

Some tips for dungeons:

Ditch Healing Power Gear as its worthless. You heal just as good with 0 HP.

Get Knights Insignia Gear/Weps

You will do good damage + be just as tanky as if you were to wear any defensive set. spec 0/0/30/30/10 or 0/10/30/30/0

guardians are the best . there is no question to that lol :p especialy in dungeons , pve .

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQNAR7elYg67mFSKEg9EhVBCi9AjwvjXPcIFZIA;T8Ag0ynEaJdStlSLqsMZJyymlLLZWLCGEsJA

My personal shout build . works every time + gives your party sooo mutch advantage even i’f your the only guardian there especialy in FOTM

cheerz ^^

0/10/30/30/0 Hammer Symbol Build.

Knight/Zerk armor mix.
Soldier Weapon.
Knight/Zerk trinket mix.

I feel really tanky and feel i do great dps.

Guardians are too good to pass up for dungeons.

1 Guard 3 war 1 mesmer or 2 guard 2 war 1 mesmer is the best mix for dungeons hands down.

You don’t really need to be tanky to support.

Basically I keep 3 sets in my inventory to switch around depending on the dungeon.

The knights/zerker mix that some folks have listed here is a very powerful combination of dps and tankiness, and i’d recommend it to anyone running PVE – but there are plenty of other viable options too.

But most of the time I’ll run full zerker armour with a mix of accessories. I have pretty low armour and HP, but thanks to healing on crit traits, and a large supply damage mitigation and stun breaks can stay in the face of the enemy most of the time.

Support for the party comes in the supply of a constant stream of protection for melee classes and might, regen, blinds, vulnerability.

Admittedly I only supply a “mediocre” amount of party healing in this build through regen and dodge heals – but every class can pretty much handle their own healing anyway, so it’s not often an issue ( and there are better healer classes than a guardian anyway ).

Utility wise, these I’ll switch between nearly every encounter in a dungeon to best suit the situation ( re-traiting too if it’s beneficial ). That way I can focus on giving the best support either through area denial, stability, reflection, condition removal or shout boons depending on the foe.

You really don’t want to take a guardian on a run which just pops wall of reflection at every encounter and thinks that’s enough.

note: I’m not saying healing spec’d guardians are bad in anyway – they’re great too – I just wanted to highlight it’s not the only way of playing the class to be useful. At the end of the day, it’s how the class is played more than what it’s capable of.

Yes and yes. Guardians are like chocolate you can’t have enough!

While they are without doubt a very potent class I find their design to be too defensive to the point that they are boring to play and ruin sPvP due to their tankiness.

My main is a charrdian and I run in a dungeon heavy guild.

I normally run a boon tank set up 0/0/30/30/10 with altruistic healing, shouts that convert conditions, and extended retaliation. I can self combo with mace/focus for area retaliation (mace symbol > skill 5) and provide every boon in the book for the whole party. P-T-V full Vigil armor (not even exotic) with Sup. Altruism runes, all accessories are sapphire + healing. (masterworks) I’ll switch to Skybringer (GS) on the second weapon set to build up Life tokens and use staff in long range or tougher fights for might boosting (with the mesmer using sig of inspiration in our group and the nec’s using BiP, we almost never run out of max might) If a boss requires special tanking attention and we’re melee heavy in the group, swap out to hammer and area prot spam.

I’ve also recently been using my warrior in AC and TA runs instead so I can level another toon. I really, really miss the healing potential of the guardian every time, and the party seems to suffer for it. Everything takes longer. Everyone has conditions almost all the time it seems like.

A good guardian build in a dungeon is part speed bump, part monk, and part team-grease. When you grind areas, efficiency is as important as being able to survive. My guardian saves everyone time and allows everyone to trait more offensively.

Sarcasmic.6741:

KeepersWay.4159:

Boon duration is affected mostly by runes and no sane guardian would go healing power armor as it leaves them being squishie or lacking damage to even get drops. so Power, Vitality, Toughness is the way to go.

People should not comment about a class they know nothing off.

PVT is useless in a pve scenario unless your goal is to solo tank in open world, and only has minor uses in pvp areas, regardless of profession. People should not comment about effective builds they know nothing of.

As for guardians, pretty much always welcome by me, doubly so in fractals. Provided they don’t sit on staff the entire run. Their damage isn’t bad, better than most if you know what you’re doing (discounting warrior of course). It’s more the side that, you don’t meet guardians who believe they Can do damage.

Um on my warrior I have a full pvt set of armor with full ruby orbs and a full set of zerker armor with ruby orbs, I notice a VERY little damage increase with beserkers, and the crit chance gained doesn’t seem to help crit more. I don’t mind running in pvt, never hurts the group.

on guardian topic I have a guardian I run it as a tanky damage dealer, giving alot of might to allies etc. It seems to work well.

Steady stream of burning, healing, and cond removal?
yeah guardians are pretty good

…and how did I forget to mention blocks? ohh blocks. Best thing ever those.
As well as stability, WoR, and Sanct.

My main is a Guardian. Power/precision/toughness gear, boon duration runes. Talented to cleanse conditions, throw out extra boons, and heal every now and again. I love the spec. Altruistic healing means I can heal myself from empty to full with one use of Staff skill 4.

In groups I regularly see people’s health bars spike up when I use all of my Virtues at once. That’s my “oh kitten” move, just when I notice that people are hurting, quickly followed by my virtue recharge elite. Otherwise, I keep an eye on conditions and toss out shouts as necessary to convert them into boons, maybe draw conditions onto myself and cleanse them. Try to use my weapon skills to throw out even more boons, maybe a condition or two, and thanks to the armor stats I deal solid damage as well.

Nobody’s ever complained, and I imagine people love constant boons and condition removal. I think of my character as a force multiplier in groups.

fragnot.8073:

Do you play one yourself in Dungeons?

Or do you often face a Guardian in your group, if so – what do you think?

In PvE… I think they are good… but I’ve been known to be wrong.

My group of mates runs at least one Guardian for permanent Protection but they are the perfect profession for PvE to the point where they are imbalanced to others prof.

When I play Guardian there is no situation where I think to myself : I’m screwed / My teammates will have to revive me.

I’d like to see their auto-attacks -and maybe general Cleave- being reduced a bit (Guardians are a great and reliable source of damage) and AoE boons being mitigated for PvE.

JJBigs.8456:

Some tips for dungeons:

Ditch Healing Power Gear as its worthless. You heal just as good with 0 HP.

Ditch HP gear, yes. But it’s laughable to say you heal just as good with 0 HP. Selfless Daring with 0 HP is 130 heal, with 1000 HP it’s 1130…over 8 times as much. Regen heals for twice as much, etc.

Oh wait, you mean for afk auto-attack AH “healer”. Yea.

Dempsey.8760:

Um on my warrior I have a full pvt set of armor with full ruby orbs and a full set of zerker armor with ruby orbs, I notice a VERY little damage increase with beserkers, and the crit chance gained doesn’t seem to help crit more. I don’t mind running in pvt, never hurts the group.

So you’re saying the game is broken and precision is actually 100% useless?

HP gear is good esp for healing aoe’s (mace 2 skill for example). But it’s only good for a healing build (which isn’t much good for anything else. at all. ever.)

Precision and Crit dmg will result in a higher DPS than Crit dmg and Power. Check the wiki and do the math yourself. Though there can be “wasted” precision points. (also noted in the wiki)