Guild Wars 2

After seeing the Braham heavy armor coming out, I’ve decided to make a heavy armor character. But I have most of my character slots used up already, so I’m torn on which class to choose; Guardian or Warrior.
I like having a lot of skills to press, having interesting mechanics with lots of tactical potential (high skill cap), and flashy effects.
I do not like long skill recharges, heavy group focus (skill has a weaker effect on yourself, but boosts your allies in return), or a lack of flexibility/versatility.
I’ll also be using a Greatsword as one of my two weapons at pretty much all times, and favor sPvP/WvW, but still enjoy PvE.

The Warrior seems like it would have more active gameplay, because it has easy access to 5 second weapon swaps and generally lower skill recharges. I love how the Greatsword can wreck people with low-recharge Hundred Blades if you can get the person pinned down.
A lot of the utilities are boring in general due to a limited theme. I absolutely love Kick in every way, but due to the pushback it has very limited viability for a melee character so I won’t likely use it that often.
The Warrior is also supposedly quite bad at PvP.

The Guardian has some cool and flashy looking skills in general, and a more interesting class mechanic. I love the blue spirity magic theme tied into the melee combat, and I love a fair number of the skills which are very interesting both visually and functionally.
But most of the skills have very long recharges which seem like they’d make the gameplay too slow and passive. Greatsword in particular lacks any straightforward attack to just tear into people, and the recharges on it are all remarkably long.
The Guardian also has a heavy team focus, and a lot of skills/traits seem to rely on teammates being close by at the expense of individual performance.

Play w/e u like.

Scoobaniec.9561:

Play w/e u like.

Well, yeah, that’s the problem. I can only make one, and I don’t know which I like more.

Warrior is very straight-forward class which doesn’t meet your criteria of having high skillcap.

Warrior they have much higher dps but is less forgiving in high end pve the best offense is the best defense.

Guardian is a warrior, warrior that can do more than just dps so obviously a guardian

Grimwolf.7163:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Play w/e u like.

Well, yeah, that’s the problem. I can only make one, and I don’t know which I like more.

You can take a brand new character into the Heart of the Mists (crossed sword icon) where you are boosted to 80 and have free access to all the abilities, traits, weapons, runes, sigils, stats, etc. You can play around with it against target golems or target professions, even a boss. You can even jump into a hot join pvp match if you like to get a feel for live gameplay.

Great way to test out builds or see what profession you want to play.

I have both classes. and both are greatsword users. I’m not sure which will be to ur liking though i think guardian will be a closer bet… but let me detail it from my perspective to help you decide.

1. Yea warriors are notorious for being bad at PvP, though in truth they can work, more or less. I got a few guildies who ran warriors in WvW and spvp. But it is not greatsword build, i can tell you that. Warriors have high enough dps, but this is largely PvE where its easier to get AI mobs to stand in one place and absorb ur strikes. In my runs (mostly dungeons) warriors are best when being supported rather than as a supporter, a consideration you might like. However damage mitigation and sustainability is what it lacks, though high armor and huge hitpoints help a little. Warriors are easier to play, less hassle, so I think that might not be what you’d want.

2. Guardian requires more active play as they use skills and stuff to survive more than warriors. I know, you dont like party support but truth be told some skills are equally good solo or for support, and you can build a high damage non supporty guardian. I dont think guardians are passive gameplay, as I actually do more passive style with warrior. True, they lack anything like a hundred blades PvE mob killer, but ur focus is said to be more pvp anyways. Also, if pve, I usually use a chain of greatsword skills that are damaging enough in its own right; use 3 to leap in mobs, 5 to chain and pull in mobs close to you, apply symbol (skill 4) which adds more dmg, and finish off with skill 2 to whack all the mobs around you. add a stability or such in there if u wanna prevent knockdown.

Warrior because it’s more useful for speedruns. It’s pretty much a must-have class.

I would say Guardian is the most versatile of the two. They do great in PvE/PvP and WvW.

If you plan to only speed run dungeons go with Warrior. IMHO, that is the only edge the Warrior has over the Guardian. Again, before people rage…I said “IMHO”.

What do both bring to the party?

Warrior’s = High burst and stacks of might to go around. Good CC.

Guardians = Good burst and stacks of literally everything else; Stability/Retaliation/Protection/Health Regen/Blocks/Burst Heals. Slightly less good CC. Reflect if you wish.

End of the day at work to almost falling asleep, so thats all I can think of right now. Hope this helps.

you can do speed runs with a guardian too for that matters. and survive longer anyway despite being one of the classes with the low hp pools ever.

edit: oh and a lot of guardians i know can pretty much solo whatever even the vines in TA and some champions in HOTW.

I play mace and shield warr and guard. My warr is by far played the most, but for flashy, fast paced play the Guardian is so much fun. Ive not encountered any issues with slow cooldowns or bogged down play on a guardian.

Warrior really got screwed for WvW by the June 23th patch, roll a guardian

Well, you all make good points and I would have expected to prefer the Guardian, but I decided to delete a lower level character I don’t really play to make the Guardian (I already had the warrior around 10ish occupying my last slot, which is where the testing of both issue came in). I played them both for a while in the mists, and I actually prefer the Warrior significantly more.
Everything that was said was basically true of each, but the Guardian just didn’t have a very visceral feel to it. The attacks all felt kinda… boring? Maybe?
Anyway, the Warrior was great. Regardless of actual viability in PvP, it was just way too much fun to be able to flip through weapon sets on a whim and really rip people apart with massive pressure, and spend the Adrenaline I built through said pressure to spike people down.
The defensive and tactical options could certainly be much better, but it was surprisingly awesome to play a walking meat grinder.
I enjoyed the utilities more than I thought I would as well. The Strength ones at least.

If you favor spvp and WvWvW go warrior for challenge/fun.

If you want a class that will always be reliable and viable go guardian.

warrior is more mobile and wether you win or loose depends on your ability to time your telegraphed animations right and know when to do your burst.
Guardian is mostly about knowing how to keep yourself alive and buff yourself and your allies.

Anyone who says go warrior for low skillcap in pvp really does not get warrior ; p

Why not plan, long term, on leveling both? I have both professions at 80 and love them both. The warrior I find less forgiving and that makes for a sense of a more active play style. My guardian is a rock that will not be moved. I like that, actually. And, as mentioned, the guardian is more viable across all game modes right now. I’d probably go guardian first.

I think Guardian would suit what you are after.

Guardian because the skill mechanics are very fluid and organic. You can leap in the middle of a spin, or move and jump. The warrior is either locked in place or stuck in a long run animation cycle.

Just purely based using the Braham armor, I’d say a Warrior because that’s how I picture them. I started a Warrior with the intention of using the Braham armor on her.

My Guardians would go for a more armored/knight look. For example, the Human Cultural Heavy T3 or Primeval Armor from the gem store.

Based on skills, as per other comments above

Hi,
My main (though only level 27, I don’t have a lot of time to play) is a warrior and I am still debating whether or not to roll a guardian.
Anyways, because you were talking about Hundred Blades I would like to give a tip to pin people down with it: Use the Greatsword and Hammer. The hammer’s adrenaline attack stuns people for a short period of time, plus the default number 5 ability does the same. It has slows and skills like that.
If you can land the adrenaline attack, followed by 5 and the slow, swap to Greatsword and use Hundred Blades they are basicly dead.

Hope you enjoy whatever you choose to play