Warrior or Guardian
Warrior – Press 2 to win if using GS. Best damage.
Guardian – Tons of support skills, good damage.
That’s what I observed. Both can get groups easily on dungeons, but Warrior leads the race.
I have an 80 Warrior and a 40 Guard and so far, the Guard will just not die. The Warrior is not as sturdy. That said, the Warrior has more interesting combat options (in my opinion). With the Guard I feel like I just default to Greatsword and Scepter/Shield for kiting.
Ultimately, I like them both. If you never want to die, you can do that with a Guard. If you want as many ways to chop mobs up as you can think of, you can do that with a Warr.
Warrior
Good: High DPS/Burst. PvE gods. Bring a lot to dungeons in the form of damage buffs to the entire party through shouts, banners, etc. Easily the best for speed runs of dungeons, if you’re interested in that “COF P1 FARM PING GEAR LF2M ZERK WAR $$$$$” crap
Bad: Less than desirable in PvP. Gets kited easily in PvP by any ranged profession that knows what they’re doing. There are a few exceptions, but those are warriors who have a lot of experience with their class and understand what their opponent can dish out and take. Can’t comment on WvW, I’ve never brought my warrior in there. I imagine they’re not too good at roaming but help a zerg/havoc group a lot.
Guardian:
Good: PvE gods. Lots of buffs to a party in the form of consecrations and shouts. Mostly wanted in PvP as a bunker. While you can go DPS and win, other professions do it better (and you probably bunker better than them). One of the better professions at rezzing downed allies (besides thief). Full zerker deals good damage, but less than a warrior. In PvP/WvW though a zerker guard has more sustain than a zerker warrior. Reflects and shouts benefit a WvW zerg greatly. Easily the most well rounded profession imo, and the devs believe so too, so I wouldn’t count on a nerf anytime soon.
Bad: Going full DPS (which often involves meditations) doesn’t benefit a party greatly, as most meditations benefit yourself. Everyone and their grandmother has a guardian. Poor ranged DPS, staff is good for support but has a short range. Scepter is single target DPS and the #2 skill loses damage on the intended target if a bunch of enemies are around it.
I’m making my first heavy class, but i’m undecided which one to pick.
So if you have the time, please give me the goods and bads from your perspective on both classes, as it will help me pick one.
Warrior
Do you always strike first?
Do you want to dual wield?
Do you like attacking from afar in PvP?
Do you want a lot of build versatility?
Guardian
Do you have a reactionary playstayle?
Do you like barriers?
Do you like supporting other players?
Do you like being the last man standing?
I was terribly undecided so i just leveled both classes to 80 and I still like both more or less equally, a slight advantage for the Warrior. I feel the guardian is more balanced and versatile all around while the warrior is just more dps and more fun skills. But I don’t theorycraft in this game so I’ll give you mostly the good and bad fun aspects.
Warrior
Good:
- High damage bursts
- Fast melee area damage
- Gigantic tagging area with bow burst
- Aggressive animations (left axe spin is the most fun skill in the game :p)
- Nice weapon sounds
- You move a lot (dashing, throwing, leaping)
- All mainhanded weapons are fun and/or useful
- Weapon choice: Chops, bleeds and burns things with style
Bad
- Still couldn’t come up with sPvP build that i like and is effective, be it bunker or dps
- Ranged kinda sucks in WvW but is still fun at least (maybe there’s a better build dunno)
- Support builds are pretty lame in PvE.
- Only one really good Elite, but the others are fun to play around with at least
- There’s no more game left in PvE so i can keep playing my warrior :P
Guardian
Good:
- Seems very balanced all around, you can build well for dps and build for survivability too. The corresponding weapons also make sense
- You can be effective with an “all around” build too
- Boon machine
- Durability depends on boon maintenance, which is fun (to me)
- Sturdy builds in sPvP (i love being that annoying dude that just won’t let go the capture point)
- You can throw mobs back and forward while killing them (aoe pull to you + spin, knockout + leap attack etc…)
- Most spirit weaps are fun in PvE and sPvP (not in tournaments)
Bad
- Very kiteable/poor range (the more fun/effective builds are not ranged, at least couldn’t come up with one). Especially sucks in WvW.
- Shield doesn’t feel like a shield that just, you know, blocks
I only play WvW (for PVE it’s meta events only).
I wanted to create a Hammer Warrior at first, since he has area control while still keeping damage, and he has lots of weapon choices.
Then i was told that the Guardian hammer is much more annoying to the enemy, plus guardian survivability is incredible, and he has more utility.
I already have a Mesmer, Engineer, and a Ranger, so i’m not too keen on having casters or range, i want a melee class that can be effective in zergs, has good survivability, build diversity, and good damage without being a kamikaze.
I only play WvW (for PVE it’s meta events only).
I wanted to create a Hammer Warrior at first, since he has area control while still keeping damage, and he has lots of weapon choices.Then i was told that the Guardian hammer is much more annoying to the enemy, plus guardian survivability is incredible, and he has more utility.
I already have a Mesmer, Engineer, and a Ranger, so i’m not too keen on having casters or range, i want a melee class that can be effective in zergs, has good survivability, build diversity, and good damage without being a kamikaze.
WvWvW-wise, you may wanna do Guardian.
Warrior = not as sturdy, good damage, boring animation except gs.
Guardian = never die, good damage, awesome looking animation, teleports, explosion effects, better utilities, crow controls.
“berserker stance clears all CC on you and you’re still immune to CC for 8 seconds”
-Excalibur.9748
(edited by Lighter.5631)
Please don’t be a Guardian if you’re a bad player and think you can facetank everything. Please. I’m sick of Guardians like this.
“Dear ANet, nerf Paper, Scissors is fine. Sincerely, Rock”
Elysaurus | Warrior | [LOL] | League of the Legendary | Gandara (EU)
I only have 2 lvl80 toons, one is guard the other warrior, i love them both lots, i would say warrior is the most fun but thats only my view a friend says guard.
If you want to dps and be invited everywhere go warrior, look gw2lfg and you will see cof and zerk warriors fill almost 50% of the site.
If you like being tanky and possibly the best survival in game, guard is the way.
Warrior – high dps in terms of raw damage, potentially the best mobilty in the game, lots of party buffs like banners and healing shouts, very useful for pve puposes, longbow is like a nuclear bomb firing rocket launcher against wvw zergs.
However.. low sustain, kind of squishy considering the heavy armor, have a big problem with certain conditions like blind and torment (now less with the new berserker stance), generally bad pvp performance, lots of bugged or broken skills that could otherwise be extremely useful like bulls charge and rush.
I don’t know much about guardians, but they seem very formidable and party supportive especially when it comes to keeping everyone alive, however kind of slow.
(edited by Segev.4108)
I have both a Warrior and a Guardian.
Guardian was my first class choice and currently my only level 80 (I play her a lot, I neglect my other characters). Guardians have great survivability traits that keep them in the fight longer. But they suffer from a smaller health pool compared to warriors. I use a Hammer on my Guardian. I also noticed someone say they suck in WvWvW. I have to disagree. While maybe not as great as some others, I can easily hold my own as a Guardian in WvWvW taking up to 2 or 3 people at a time. Most people’s gripe with Guardians is trying to keep up with a zerg, or a group of people in general, to that I bring a staff to keep up and it’s no problem. (I also alternate between ‘Retreat’ and ‘Save Yourselves’).
So far, on my warrior, I deal a nice amount of damage, and can kill several things in no time. My primary is a greatsword, and man is it great. As I said, my guardian is my only 80 so I really don’t have much to say about the warrior other than I kill things faster than my guardian.
Honestly, if you have two slots I’d suggest doing them both. They’re both excellent classes.
Geno Bishou (Elementist) | Suki The Huntress (Ranger) | Geno The Unknown (Thief)
In terms of Hammers, the big advantage of Hammer Guardians is they have a Blast Finisher that is on a five second (4s traited) cooldown. Blast Finishers are the king of the current WvW meta, as they make all combos AoE boons. They also pump out Protection on the auto-attack.
On the other hand, the Hammer Warriors are the key to frontline zerg play, as they go in first to destabilize the enemy with their CC.
So in terms of Hammer heavies, it depends if you want to play a supportive/control style or an offensive/control style.
Go with Both. Both of those professions are good. As far as choosing one, just flip a coin.
I like guardian as Tyria has magic and guardian makes use of that, plus when I’m last Asura standing, people cant tell me that I’m bad at playing because I just come back with “who died first?”
Kiel Replacement Movement