Guild Wars 2

So yeah, pretty much what the title says. I know this question has been made a lot of times before but I wanna hear more opinions about these professions, especially which one is more versatile overall at the moment. I’m talking about comparing them in WvW, PvP, PvE, etc. I just decided that I wanna main a soldier profession but I can’t decide. So I would apreciate if anyone of you could help me giving me some opinions and thoughts from your expierences with these classes
Thank you for reading.

More versatile? Guardian.
More damage/farming potential? Warrior.

Both classes are strong in all game modes, so literally just pick the one that’s more interesting to you.

EdSterling.5264:

I wanna hear more opinions about these professions, especially which one is more versatile overall at the moment. I’m talking about comparing them in WvW, PvP, PvE, etc. I just decided that I wanna main a soldier profession but I can’t decide.

colesy.8490:

Both classes are strong in all game modes, so literally just pick the one that’s more interesting to you.

Gotta love those responses.

Guardian can and often does play more, and feel more like a Battle mage or a melee caster. Not so much a soldier, to me. In fact guardians feel more caster like to me than even some specs of elementalist.

They can be heartier than a Warrior (I feel) but they require more micromanagement to get there while Warriors are just damage soakers naturally.

As far as versatility goes, guardians win hands down. They are very well off in every portion of the game and not overpowered in any. A guardian has the tools to complete everything with relative ease in the game. While some classes Roam WvW better, or zerk better, or farm dungeons better, or even are more desired in tPvP in all areas of the game a guardian will be in a good spot. However the warrior is top tier in multiple areas of game play.

So there is a choice there. Best at some areas of the game or pretty well off in all areas of the game.

Warrior for solo or 2-3 friends, Guardian for groups. Which isn’t to say that Guards can’t solo, they can. But Warriors have some really fun solo builds and Guard solo builds tend to be exactly the same as group builds with a couple of traits flipped.

Guardian has support and can help out the team. They bring much needed skills while also doing pretty good dps. They are also way more interesting to play. Warriors are boring because you just do dps. You can try to change it up with condition damage and shout heal but really warriors just do dps. The dps is great though and with 25 stacks of might you can see really great numbers. IMO guardian is still better and more versatile as every group should have a guardian for most scenarios to cure conditions and for wall of reflect and the other absorby thing (forget the name).

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

More versatile? Guardian.
More damage/farming potential? Warrior.

Somewhat

Guardian staff is one of the most valuable and overpowered weapons in the game. We can tag up to 5 mobs with an auto attack, along with a large PBAOE on short cooldown. Not to mention Empower can heal us a ton when near +4 players and give us stacks of might.

Guardian is superior to Warrior in every facet except pure DPS. The Warrior has great DPS but it is largely limited to single target or multiple targets in a closed cone.

If you want to kill stuff quickly, roll a warrior. But if you want to make a lot of gold and enjoy farming, guardian is the superior class.

Not to mention guardian is much better at survivability and mobility.

I forgot to add that I’m pretending to play solo, I don’t have a guild or a group of friends to play with (sad face). So, just telling you so you can take that in consideration.

Vol.5241:

Not to mention guardian is much better at survivability and mobility.

A guardian is not more mobile than a warrior, I’m not even sure how you can come to that conclusion?

A more in-depth response:
PvE: Superior AOE. Better range abilities. Better survivability and mobility. Can maintain nearly 100% uptime on swiftness with 2/3 utilities.

WvW: Superior to warrior. In WvW, zergs are dominant, so guardian has higher chance of surviving. They also provide good CC with the hammer and staff. Also a badge dispenser. Superior healing abilities with altruistic healing and empower.

PvP: Cannot comment since I don’t do spvp

In terms of PvE, Warrior is simply the best solo class. It has the best self-buffing capabilities, DPS is pretty high and it has the highest mobility of any class (Vol apparently has never played a warrior, warriors will dumpster guardians in a race), other than maybe thieves, but it’s pretty close.

Warriors are utilized heavily in WvW, usually in the form of a Hammer warrior jumping around stunning people. If you want to be open world farming, I wouldn’t really recommend a warrior. If you do plan on solo’ing a lot, I’d recommend a Warrior.

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Vol.5241:

Not to mention guardian is much better at survivability and mobility.

A guardian is not more mobile than a warrior, I’m not even sure how you can come to that conclusion?

Let’s see..

-Virtue of Justice (traited) activates stability for you
-Virtue of Resolve (traited) can remove up to 3 conditions
-Stand Your Ground – stability
-Judge’s Intervention – instant 1200 range teleport on an enemy
-Staff 3 – swiftness on short cooldown
-Save Yourself – stunbreaker with swiftness that stacks
-Retreat – swiftness (and also activates aegis) that stacks
-GS 3 – leap of about 400-600 range on short cooldown

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

In terms of PvE, Warrior is simply the best solo class. It has the best self-buffing capabilities, DPS is pretty high and it has the highest mobility of any class (Vol apparently has never played a warrior, warriors will dumpster guardians in a race), other than maybe thieves, but it’s pretty close.

Warriors are utilized heavily in WvW, usually in the form of a Hammer warrior jumping around stunning people. If you want to be open world farming, I wouldn’t really recommend a warrior. If you do plan on solo’ing a lot, I’d recommend a Warrior.

I actually do have a warrior – a full zerk one that I’ve had since last November

Vol.5241:

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Vol.5241:

Not to mention guardian is much better at survivability and mobility.

A guardian is not more mobile than a warrior, I’m not even sure how you can come to that conclusion?

Let’s see..

-Virtue of Justice (traited) activates stability for you
-Virtue of Resolve (traited) can remove up to 3 conditions
-Stand Your Ground – stability
-Judge’s Intervention – instant 1200 range teleport on an enemy
-Staff 3 – swiftness on short cooldown
-Save Yourself – stunbreaker with swiftness that stacks
-Retreat – swiftness (and also activates aegis) that stacks
-GS 3 – leap of about 400-600 range on short cooldown

Warriors have:

-Permanent swiftness, due to 2 skills (Warhorn #4 and Signet of Rage)
-Bulls charge, 900 range (Utility, 40s recharge)
-Rush, 1200 range (on GS, 20s recharge)
-Whirlwind Attack, 450 range + evade (on GS, 10s recharge)
-Savage Leap, 600 range (on Sword MH, 8s recharge)
-Endure Pain, 4 seconds direct damage immunity + stun break (Utility, 60s recharge)
-Balanced Stance, 9 seconds stability+swiftness (utility, 40s recharge)

You can rotate between shield and warhorn if you’re out of combat, shield will give you ‘Shield stance’, which is a 3 second block which will block almost anything which would damage you/put you in combat, on a 30 second recharge.

Warriors (and maybe thieves) are easily the most mobile class. Guardians also have Sword #2, btw. Thought I’d help you out there.

Well, so umm, if I’m going to solo in PvE, WvW and PvP I should just run a warrior?

Vol.5241:

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Vol.5241:

Not to mention guardian is much better at survivability and mobility.

A guardian is not more mobile than a warrior, I’m not even sure how you can come to that conclusion?

Let’s see..

-Virtue of Justice (traited) activates stability for you
-Virtue of Resolve (traited) can remove up to 3 conditions
-Stand Your Ground – stability
-Judge’s Intervention – instant 1200 range teleport on an enemy
-Staff 3 – swiftness on short cooldown
-Save Yourself – stunbreaker with swiftness that stacks
-Retreat – swiftness (and also activates aegis) that stacks
-GS 3 – leap of about 400-600 range on short cooldown

Warriors have perm swiftness, access to more stability, and their Whirlwind Attack moves further faster and has a shorter cooldown than Leap of Faith. They also have Rush and a ranged attack (900 range Bladetrail) on the same weapons

I love my guardian. But if a warrior wants to disengage from you there is nothing you can do about it. I usually shrug and stand on the node. He will be back

Warriors (and maybe thieves) are easily the most mobile class.

I would throw d/d Ele’s in that mix with their perm swift, RTL, and great condition removal.

no class can out run warrior when he is on GS / S-Wh. alternating between whirlwind, rush, bullrush, leap, and swiftness. with perma 25% pasive movement speed.

Be like me and have one of each

I know it could be easier to me to just pick them both, but I wanna focus only on one right now

I should probably clarify that when I’m talking about mobility I’m talking PvE farming (i.e. when there are several waves of mobs around you and you want to tag them all)

I did this a lot at Penitent camp when there would be 3 waves at a time. I’d staff 1 one group, lay down an aoe on another, then activate judge’s intervention on a 3rd. All within 3 seconds. And with the near 100% swiftness and stability/block It’s fairly easy and quick to move around.

A warrior has a much harder time tagging all those mobs (especially when separated by a large distance). I’d think a warrior would be more akin to use GS/Dual axe for farming, and would not equip bullrush or endure pain as a utility.

But yes, in terms of WvW mobility they are near impossible to catch up to.

EdSterling.5264:

I know it could be easier to me to just pick them both, but I wanna focus only on one right now

If you are going to solo, pick warrior.

However I suggest you take advantage of the Pavillion farming right now and run a guardian. You can level him up fast since a guardian staff can tag more mobs (and get more exp) compared to a warrior. Not to mention you can stand behind the other players getting beat on while a warrior will have to stand with everyone on the frontlines against destroyers and such.

You have probably the weirdest definition of mobility that I’ve ever seen.

If a warrior wants to tag mobs, doesn’t their whirlwind just hit everything? GS and axe both cleave and I’m guessing you could hammer stun mobs too.

colesy.8490:

You have probably the weirdest definition of mobility that I’ve ever seen.

If a warrior wants to tag mobs, doesn’t their whirlwind just hit everything? GS and axe both cleave and I’m guessing you could hammer stun mobs too.

No one tags better than guardian staff #1

If Mobility = Tagging mobs (I agree that really isn’t “Mobility”)

Then yes Guardian would win that battle.

I’d probably agree with Vol that a Guardian is far superior if you’re into the whole ‘tagging mobs’ open world farming thing. But I agree, his definition of mobility is kind of odd.

colesy.8490:

You have probably the weirdest definition of mobility that I’ve ever seen.

If a warrior wants to tag mobs, doesn’t their whirlwind just hit everything? GS and axe both cleave and I’m guessing you could hammer stun mobs too.

Yeah you could whirlwind through mobs but then you’d have to position yourself so that when you finish you’re near the other waves.

A guardian can just stand on one spot, staff spam one wave, turn around and then staff spam the other wave. It’s just the benefit of have a ranged weapon.

Mobility may not be the best word but there really isn’t anything else for me to call it.

Quickest and most efficient at tagging mobs anywhere and everywhere?

Lokki.1092:

colesy.8490:

You have probably the weirdest definition of mobility that I’ve ever seen.

If a warrior wants to tag mobs, doesn’t their whirlwind just hit everything? GS and axe both cleave and I’m guessing you could hammer stun mobs too.

No one tags better than guardian staff #1

If Mobility = Tagging mobs (I agree that really isn’t “Mobility”)

Then yes Guardian would win that battle.

Basically in the end what I’m saying is…which class is the fastest at moving around (and tagging) the battlefield in PvE in a small area (i.e. pen/shelt)

colesy.8490:

Both classes are strong in all game modes, so literally just pick the one that’s more interesting to you.

Agreed. I made both and go between the two. I can’t say which one I prefer.

warrior can tag mobs as much. using longbow / hammer. traiting for adrenaline gain. you can literally get that big fire aoe up 100% of the time + longbow #3, with some hammer aoe #3 + its burst and some auto attack cleave, warrior can do serious tagging.!!

All I play is Warrior and Guardian at the moment. I still cannot say which one I prefer. As far as choosing one over the other, you could literally flip a coin.

Also, Don’t forget about the Warriors Banners when it comes to support.

Well thanks to everyone who posted here. I hope more people read this and post their opinion too. Thanks again!

Vol.5241:

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

More versatile? Guardian.
More damage/farming potential? Warrior.

Somewhat

Guardian staff is one of the most valuable and overpowered weapons in the game. We can tag up to 5 mobs with an auto attack, along with a large PBAOE on short cooldown. Not to mention Empower can heal us a ton when near +4 players and give us stacks of might.

Guardian is superior to Warrior in every facet except pure DPS. The Warrior has great DPS but it is largely limited to single target or multiple targets in a closed cone.

If you want to kill stuff quickly, roll a warrior. But if you want to make a lot of gold and enjoy farming, guardian is the superior class.

Not to mention guardian is much better at survivability and mobility.

Guard isn’t superior to warrior in terms of CC or condition builds. Warrior with sword/warhorn and GS is far more mobile than any guardian build. Warrior now is also very survivable due to its huge HP pool and access to invulnerability and amazing heal skills.

I’d say: Warrior is great for high damage builds in PvE, running around like a boss with a hammer in WvW, and smashing people in the face with mace in sPvP.

Guardian excels at boonsharing, bunkering, and generally being overpowered in both WvW and high level dungeons.

If you want to farm, guardian is great. If you want to kill stuff and see giant hits, warrior is better.

Well the word mobility is about “getting around”. Vol’s example is a specific example of farming efficiency, which guardian is hands down the most efficient of any class. It’s not about damage 100%, it’s about tagging and guardians do that better as others have already described.

When I run p2 Arah, I’m the one doing the solo kamikaze runs to open up WPs for my group. I definitely have an easier AND faster time on my warrior than on my guard, and this is of course me using proper utilities for the run phases.

The biggest difference to me is that fastest mobility is mostly focused on the weapons for a warrior, where on a guardian it’s a bit more diversified into utilities.

Vol.5241:

A more in-depth response:
PvE: Superior AOE. Better range abilities. Better survivability and mobility. Can maintain nearly 100% uptime on swiftness with 2/3 utilities.

WvW: Superior to warrior. In WvW, zergs are dominant, so guardian has higher chance of surviving. They also provide good CC with the hammer and staff. Also a badge dispenser. Superior healing abilities with altruistic healing and empower.

PvP: Cannot comment since I don’t do spvp

just came here to tell you that you have no clue what u`re talking about. none whatsoever.

For Pve,
Pugs: Guardian
Guildies/People who have brain function: Warrior

I’ve got a couple of warriors and a couple of guards so i’ll offer my take on it for what it is worth.

PVE – You should have no problems farming, running dungeons or running solo with either of them as both do extremely well in all facets of pve.

Warrior though edges it because at the end of the day, pve really is extremely dps orientated. If you know how to play and can run a full zerk warrior without eating dirt every five minutes. Well then warrior is top dog.

WvW – Again, both do extremely well. Both can be used as frontline smashers if you want to roll along with a zerg. Both can solo roam (although quite why you would do that when thieves and mesmers are better suited for it is beyond me).

Whilst warriors are cool in w3 and whilst both offer group utility, the guard brings alot more to the table for the group with stability, boons, shout cleanses and heals. I would say that the guard edges it.

sPvP – The guard wins this one for me as it has generally always been there or there abouts in terms of being one of the more important, better performing classes. Warrior on the otherhand, hasn’t.

Generally, the guard offers more versatility, outperforms in pvp and brings more to a group. The warrior is top dog in pve due to its damage potential and can do very well in w3.

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

In terms of PvE, Warrior is simply the best solo class. It has the best self-buffing capabilities, DPS is pretty high and it has the highest mobility of any class (Vol apparently has never played a warrior, warriors will dumpster guardians in a race), other than maybe thieves, but it’s pretty close.

Warriors are utilized heavily in WvW, usually in the form of a Hammer warrior jumping around stunning people. If you want to be open world farming, I wouldn’t really recommend a warrior. If you do plan on solo’ing a lot, I’d recommend a Warrior.

Guardian has the best survivability in PVE so I don’t know how you can say Warrior is “simply the best solo class”.

KICKER.3874:

Vol.5241:

A more in-depth response:
PvE: Superior AOE. Better range abilities. Better survivability and mobility. Can maintain nearly 100% uptime on swiftness with 2/3 utilities.

WvW: Superior to warrior. In WvW, zergs are dominant, so guardian has higher chance of surviving. They also provide good CC with the hammer and staff. Also a badge dispenser. Superior healing abilities with altruistic healing and empower.

PvP: Cannot comment since I don’t do spvp

just came here to tell you that you have no clue what u`re talking about. none whatsoever.

Perma speed(if wanted), perma stability(if wanted) and many leeps and decent CC…what’s not to understand?

Amun Ra.6435:

Guardian has the best survivability in PVE so I don’t know how you can say Warrior is “simply the best solo class”.

Because if you know what you are doing you can also solo as a warrior whilst having the advantage of greater damage potential.

That isn’t to say that guard isn’t amazing in pve as well ofc.

Amun Ra.6435:

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

In terms of PvE, Warrior is simply the best solo class. It has the best self-buffing capabilities, DPS is pretty high and it has the highest mobility of any class (Vol apparently has never played a warrior, warriors will dumpster guardians in a race), other than maybe thieves, but it’s pretty close.

Warriors are utilized heavily in WvW, usually in the form of a Hammer warrior jumping around stunning people. If you want to be open world farming, I wouldn’t really recommend a warrior. If you do plan on solo’ing a lot, I’d recommend a Warrior.

Guardian has the best survivability in PVE so I don’t know how you can say Warrior is “simply the best solo class”.

Warrior running a solo spec will usually be axe+shield (or sword) + GS. This gives you access to 4 evades and one 3 second block, you can also run an energy sigil on shield to put you up to 5 evades. It also does more damage by itself than that of a Guardian. Guardian has a few evasion/block skills of its own, however not as many as the warrior, and it does less damage. I hope you weren’t referring to a healing spec guardian facetanking things with AH, because that’s pretty embarrassing.