Guild Wars 2

My interest in GW2 rekindled after i heard about the upcoming expansion and i managed to convince 2 friends of mine to try it out given the sale..Since i’ve been away from the game for a good long year,i’d like some help deciding between Engineer and Guardian..Which one would be more suitable complementing my friends’ professions? One has picked ranger and the other an elementalist..
I’d like feedback,if possible, for all aspects of the game.
Thanks in advance!

Guards have more protection, selfhealing, burst damage, Aegis, Stability and invulns. They are tied with mesmers for being the slowest class in the game, so if you take it, you’ll want sigils of Speed early on while levelling, and probably Runes of the Traveler at level cap on your exotic/ascended armors. While I’ve met very few guards who know how to Aegis properly, those who do can save people who can’t dodge to save their own lives, repeatedly.

Engis have more condition damage, more might, more AoE sustained dps, more regen, more combo fields, more finishers, are the only other class except thieves that can solo 12s stealthblast, have permanent self-swiftness and can swap roles at any times they wish.

Also, guards have a far gentler learning curve. That isn’t to say that skill doesn’t affect a guard because rotation timing can make >30% differences in DPS in addition to the survivability differences innate to all classes, but a bad guard trails behind a good guard far less than a bad engi trails behind a good engi.

And between the ranger and elementalist in terms of synergy, your ranger friend will already provide regens/water fields (an engi adv), your elementalist will provide protection (a guard adv), blind (a guard adv), burning (a guard adv) and might (an engi adv). Both of those professions can go full ranged, while ranged guards lag severely behind ranged engis.

We’re talking on general terms though. Specific content may recommend specific builds – for instance triple wurm on guard isn’t very good, but on the other hand guards can solo Arah while engineers are at the mercy of RNGesus for Lupi.

P.S. Engineers are hands-down the fastest world-completion class, as they can park turrets at a Heart, run to the next heart, blow up their turrets when they get heart completion notification on the way, re-drop turrets at the next heart…

Guard is an all around good choice but if you want to actually have fun pick engineer.

tagari.3915:

My interest in GW2 rekindled after i heard about the upcoming expansion and i managed to convince 2 friends of mine to try it out given the sale..Since i’ve been away from the game for a good long year,i’d like some help deciding between Engineer and Guardian..Which one would be more suitable complementing my friends’ professions? One has picked ranger and the other an elementalist..
I’d like feedback,if possible, for all aspects of the game.
Thanks in advance!

well both professions have good support skills. Guardian’s support is more geared towards reducing damage and boosting your friends damage while engineer is more geared towards healing and removing conditions.

I’d say Guardian is more of a support profession then engineer but they both have stuff to offer in those departments.

If I were you I’d go with the class that resonates more with me though after all. As they say charity begins at home, its better if you enjoy what you play the most and then do what you can to help your friends rather then focusing on helping your friends first and what you enjoy secondary. You will be playing your char all the time and only supporting some of the time keep that in mind!

Do you want to do WvW of PvE with your chars? Or perhaps pvp?
For small groups in WvW I would pick engineer, very good for small group roaming. And I heard they do pretty good in PvP too

Firstly,thanks for the responses!!
We’re going to be playing mostly PvE and PvP i think..
Regarding support distinctions by Galen Grey,i’m willing to do both so i’ll check a bit which direction are my friends going..If they pick a healing role for example,it’d be good to have a guardian if i got your saying completely..

tagari.3915:

Firstly,thanks for the responses!!
We’re going to be playing mostly PvE and PvP i think..
Regarding support distinctions by Galen Grey,i’m willing to do both so i’ll check a bit which direction are my friends going..If they pick a healing role for example,it’d be good to have a guardian if i got your saying completely..

With guild wars 2 you need to be a bit careful when talking about roles. In Gw2 there is a reason why Anet were careful to say they removed the classic trinity with a support / control / damage alternative.

Thing is its not feasable to run a purely healing role simply because no matter what profession you pick up you will not heal allies enough to keep them alive simply by healing. in Guild wars 2 the closest you get is a support role which has to do more then simply heal. You’d heal, remove condition, reduce damage done to allies, helping them disengage when necessary etc…

But yes Guardian is probably the best choice for someone who wants to get closest to a traditional healer as long as you keep in mind you need to do more then just simply heal.

Forgive me, i didn’t mean to say a pure specific role,that’s what i get when i wanted to express myself in English while thinking on my native language.. :p
From what i get by reading around is that Guardian is a “safer” choice for supporting a group whereas the Engi has a higher learning curve,but could be more rewarding.
Did i get this right?

tagari.3915:

Forgive me, i didn’t mean to say a pure specific role,that’s what i get when i wanted to express myself in English while thinking on my native language.. :p
From what i get by reading around is that Guardian is a “safer” choice for supporting a group whereas the Engi has a higher learning curve,but could be more rewarding.
Did i get this right?

Pretty much correct.

Guardians are pretty much accepted everywhere but they’re a common profession.

Engineers are uncommon but rewarding when you learn them.

Engis are more complicated to learn IMO, but are pretty fun once you get the hang of them.

Guardians have the “lootstick” (staff skill 1) and are pretty easy to get right off the bat.

WOW Hayashi,thanks!!
You’ve given me exactly what i needed!!
I’ve decided to go with the Engineer,thanks to everyone who participated and provided with insight for both classes!
One last question though..My friend who has chosen ranger,has changed his mind onto warrior…Does this shift synergies towards a profession?

tagari.3915:

WOW Hayashi,thanks!!
You’ve given me exactly what i needed!!
I’ve decided to go with the Engineer,thanks to everyone who participated and provided with insight for both classes!
One last question though..My friend who has chosen ranger,has changed his mind onto warrior…Does this shift synergies towards a profession?

yes and no. It really depends on the other party, if they use their blast finishers in your combo fields, stay in your radius of healing…etc. Basically almost every combination of classes can work together and do amazing things IF they respond to eachother, know what the skills of the other one do, adapt to situations (what as engi is a piece of cake) and simple said just work as a team…and like i mentoned as engi you can so quickly change your tactics that there shouldnt be any issues…especially not with wars and rangers

edit: Also as engineer you are basically a sentient toolbox on legs, you gonna notice that soon enough if you look into your skillset, kits, traits and weapons.

tagari.3915:

WOW Hayashi,thanks!!
You’ve given me exactly what i needed!!
I’ve decided to go with the Engineer,thanks to everyone who participated and provided with insight for both classes!
One last question though..My friend who has chosen ranger,has changed his mind onto warrior…Does this shift synergies towards a profession?

Good choice, having played both I find my engineer much more fun to play then my guardian That being said, in the long term no reason why you cant have both! Doesnt take that long to get an alt to max level

in a group of ranger and elementalist i would pick guardian as a melee heavy class character.

Tho a engineer does have some nice fields for the rangers projectile finishers, and some nice blast finishers for the elementalist fields… i still think having a guardian will offer more diversity to your 3 man party there.

If you like the playstyle on engineer then that would be better because there is not so many of them and they can do everything the guardian can elixir h for protection, elixir u for wall or reflection, elixir c to cleanse conditions and lot of healing.