Guild Wars 2

Alright,

First let me say that I thank everyone for their help on this, and ultimately I am sure there is the whole “play both and get a feel for it”. Unfortunately, I got old in real life, and I do not have the time to invest in multiple toons to get the feel for them anymore.

This is my 7th mmo in nearly 15 years. I played UO (doesnt matter), DAoC (Warrior), SWG (doesnt matter), SB (Warrior), WoW (Ret Paly), SWTOR (DPS Guardian)… Obviously, I like heavy armor and I prefer a more offensive oriented toon, but I am a cautious offensively and not headlong. In GW2, all professions can be that so I am not sure.

I plan on playing with a Greatsword as my main weapon because over the years I went from a sword/shield kind of person to a Greatsword kind of guy (always hated two handed hammers/axes).

I like that the Warrior can use a ranged weapon which I see as handy in WvW, and I like what I hear is good movement. I hear though that while his hit pool is high, he can be blasted and not survive super well in pvp. I also fear that with them so bursty, people just dodge my damage

The Guardian seems to have great survival, but then I am wondering if I go more offensive guardian if with the lower health pool if they are too squishy. Plus no range kind of sucks

Basically, I want an offensive plate wearing toon, but I am willing to give up being the top dps in order to be standing.. or should I say.. relatively hard to kill with dps that is more than respectable.

This is only about PvP.

I love my Warrior so far, and have been going for a mostly DPS build. But to put it in perspective, in WoW I played a cat-feral druid, and in SWTOR I was a Jedi Shadow with a utility sort of spec.

The Warrior makes for an aggressive play-style where you need to stick to your targets like glue and burn them down, though it does have decent ranged options with the longbow and rifle, with which you can switch to kiting when going up against a tougher target.

The guardian strikes me as being more like WoW’s paladins, but I haven’t played it to compare.

Well its my opinion that currently Warriors are absolutely rediculous. That may or maynot change in time. It could be I’m not countering them properly but so far most PvP matches I’ve been in Warriors tend to be dominating. Haven’t really seen a guardian yet and thought “awwkitten I’m dead”.

Guardian take a bit more forethought when playing, I think. Warriors are just plain fun as a melee class. But to get the most out of a Guardian, you need to think about how to benefit the group or even others just around you as well as fight.

If you ever played a Healer/Shaman in other games, then the Guardian is as close to those classes as GW2 has allowed.

I suggest you make one of each…thats what I did, lol.

Raf

Both classes are really difficult to kill. Guardian has more heals, but less HP than a warrior. Both classes are good and perform well in PvP. I would just flip a coin if you don’t want to get a feel for either class. :P Otherwise just make both classes and go to the Mists and try out SPvP with both and decide that way.

My main is a guardian, but I haven’t played warrior at all so I’m hesitant to offer any advice.

I will say that, while a guardian lacks much range, the greatsword does come with Leap of Faith (4) and uh..the chain pull thingy (5).

The staff has some range, but it’s more for healing and utility than dps. Not sure if you’d be into that as your alternate weapon set. I tried it out a bit in WvW and it was fun to sit back and try to heal my allies while funneling the enemies where I wanted them to go.

I just went through this debate with myself. I finally settled on Guardian, but only because it fits my playstyle better than Warrior for now.

Okay so I think you and I have a lot in common personality wise, I will just share some things that stuck out with both for me:

Warrior has a higher health pool, true, but practically this doesn’t mean anything. Guardians have passive mitigation and regeneration… it feels like in the end they are equal.

Warrior relies more on the nitty-gritty martial aspect in combat.
Guardian relies more on the magical, holy warrior aspect in combat.

Warrior has FAR better ranged options. (This was a big hangup for me)
Guardian has FAR better mobility!! (Teleports and stuff, it’s fun)

Warrior leans more towards offensive support for allies.
Guardian leans more towards defensive support for allies.

Both classes, in my limited experience, can bring the Pain Train down the tracks if needed. I prefer the Guardian Greatsword skills because you can perform self combos!

I would say play them both, because both are awesome classes… but for me I will focus on Guardian for now and just jump into some sPvP with my Warrior when I need the adrenaline fix.

Personally, I LOVE my Charr Warrior. I’ve been actively playing him for awhile now, and wont stop for a long time

I also think that GW2 pvp is more about a group dynamic than other games. As such, when Nuzt says, "Haven’t really seen a guardian yet and thought “awwkitten I’m dead,” I think it’s difficult to get that feeling in GW2 at all. At least in WvW, I generally think “awwkitten I’m dead” only when we’re outnumbered by a noticeable margin.

So if you want to be more self-focused, then I’d say go with warrior. I think guardians are more intended to provide at least some utility/healing on the battlefield, while also being able to hold their own in melee. But again, I haven’t actually played a warrior.

@OP:

Sounds like you want a Guardian. They have a ton of utility, and a wide range of specs, ranging from a very glass-cannonish build with very solid DPS output via Greatsword, to an exceedingly tanky point defense build that can hold a point and/or support teammates. It’s strong in 1v1 and in group roles. It’s easily one of the strongest PvP classes in the game right now.

Warriors are strong too, but they (generally) have a much more specialized role in competitive PvP: they do tons of damage and do it very quickly. They’re far less reliable in 1v1 situations. With a group supporting them, however, they can dish out massive amounts of damage, and have strong AoE options. Their group utility, by comparison, is relatively low.

If you like seeing huge numbers and killing lots of people in big group skirmishes, opt for Warrior. If you like having tools for every situation, a strong 1v1 capability, solid damage output, extreme survivability, and the ability to defend points better than any other class in the game, play Guardian.

well, if you hate hammer, thats really going to put a damper on your pvp capabilities as a warrior. i had the same problem at first, and ended up going with the warrior after many pvp matches with both. the warrior with a hammer/rifle combo is sick for 1v1 and team fights due to the cc from hammer being aoe. when i faced a guardian 1 on 1, 9 times out of 10 i would win with that weapon setup. there attacks are very easy to dodge because they swing that 3rd strike really slow depending on which weapon they have as well so dodging them was easy. anytime they did something which gave them retaliation i would chain 5 on hammer with E (default f1) stuns and it would be over by then with minimal dmg to myself done, and after all my hammer skills would go on cd, i would pop rifle out, 5 skill to push them back followed by 2 for snare, 4 for vulnerability debuff and 3 for the dps. by then there retaliation was up again and i would just switch back to hammer and leap in with f1 for a stun and repeat.

im sure guardians can find a spec that might counter that, prolly using a shield, but so far, most guardians i come across use sceptor with a torch and a greatsword and that combo works extremely well.

unless your just hellbent on not using hammer and only going gs, i would highly recommend a warrior.

plus, jugernaut or w/e that elite is called it pretty sweet too. 20 some seconds of stability with massive dmg and gap closers/range all on 1 skill bar.

I’ve been playing both professions in PvE and PvP (because, let’s face it, plate all the waaaaay!), and I honestly have to say that in terms of strategic butchering, the Warrior has the edge. When it comes to survivability and defensive play though, Guardians are the victors.

What you need to really settle on, particularly in structured PvP (but in WvW it’s likely about as important) is whether or not you’re the one to chase opponents for miles, or if you just are completely dandy with defending a point once it’s captured.
For chasing, Warriors are simply terrific. With greatswords (as you mentioned this weapon in particular), they get a charge, a crippling attack, a free dodge in form of Whirlwind and last but not least, a nice damage spike. Add to that the capacity to use their Burst to improve their crit rating by 20% for a few seconds, and bam. You got yourself some smooth kills.

Guardian on greatsword is more static. An AoE field, a swirling move with limited reach, a blinding charge, and an AoE “death grip” sort of thing to reel opponents back to you.

Even though you say you don’t want to test both and see, it doesn’t hurt to try regardless. It can be done really rather fast!
If you head to the Mists for structured PvP, you can set up even a level 1 character for full PvP due to the fact that all of them are set to 80 with the same Armours, Weapons, Trait points and Skills at their disposal. It may take but an hour to test both in a few tiny matches (account wide Glory, so… what the hey, it’s no loss to try) and then go from there.

But yes, personally I find Guardian to be more flexible for survivability, especially when teamed up, but Warriors are firm and absolute murder machines in the right hands. (Also, hammers. Warriors love them blunt bonk sticks.)
Hope that’s of some help! Saw a lot of others also tossed in their few cents, figured I might too. Whatever you choose, hope you enjoy it! I sure enjoy both my plateys.

I’ve really enjoyed my warrior. I always hesitated rolling a warrior in other games because I hate to tank. This game allows me to bash things & not worry about the tanking responsibilities. I have not tried the guardian (yet).

I’m with ChiefWilliams on the hammer. Love the hammer skills, but I don’t really like the Greatsword skills of the warrior. This is probably just a personal preference.

Haven’t done Warrior yet but I really enjoy my Guardian. Greatsword is really great for taking out mobs of enemies. It has a leap skill to close the gap, a pull skill which pulls like 4 or 5 enemies to you. A spinning AoE attack that hits everything next to you and some stuff a little further out. First skill also has a wide sweeping motion which often hits most enemies next to you.

For ranged options it doesn’t have much. Scepter is really your only option and it’s what I tend to use in WvW. I don’t think it has nearly the range of the rifle or longbow the warrior has. I also really like the torch because the fire breathing skill does pretty good damage and looks awesome. Staff is pretty fun to use in WvW cause you fall into more of a support role which I usually hate but I ended up really enjoying.

I’m only on level 20 with my guardian so I haven’t had to experience of using too many utility skills but they’ve got some good ones that remove conditions and apply boons which I find to help me survive when I should be going down. Also the Aegis virtue has saved me a few times by blocking what would have been a deathblow and allowed me to heal up.

Definitely want to try out a warrior as well. I saw a warrior absolutely destroying things with his greatsword today. Enemies that were taking me a while to kill (on my ranger) he was felling in about 3 or 4 hits. He was also a higher level than me but was scaled down to the same level as me.

Good questions, and as far as I have seen, decent answers. I have a 43 Guardian, so I can say that you can CERTAINLY bring the pain. Sword/Torch combo works well, as Does Shield/ Mace. I use my weapon combinations for many things and switching them in combat helps.

You DO have a range option Scepter works from close to medium range and can be used to kite to a degree.

Below are Some of the range options available
Key numbers with (a) are the second button press
for me these are the numbers I mean when I say close, short, medium,moderate
Close range : less than 3M
Short ramge 3-5M,
Medium range are 5-8M
Moderate 8-11M

Greatsword – medium range Jump(4) and the medium Attack(5) and a Medium Range pull (5a)option
Sword – teleport(2) and attack speed increase and Short range attack (3)
Shield – Medium range protection shield(5) decent for interrupting some mobs
Torch – Short Range AoE Attack(5) ( trying spinning right or left to blanket an area ) + and a medium range single attack(4a)
Staff – Short range 60 degree AoE Arc(1) attack + Single Medium range Target attack(2) and group target heal (2a)
Scepter – Moderate Range Attack (1)

So yes you get MUCH more range from a Warrior, but as others have said you get survivability with the Guardian.

I hope it helps.

~Zackis

[quote[Basically, I want an offensive plate wearing toon, but I am willing to give up being the top dps in order to be standing.. or should I say.. relatively hard to kill with dps that is more than respectable.[/quote]

Go warrior, then.

Trust me. As someone who made the transition from L33 Warrior to L52 Guardian, survivability alone is not a reason to go Guardian, and warriors do not necessarily lack survivability. Being hard to kill is a matter of playstyle, gear and spec, and Warriors are remarkably durable.

It’s just that there’s so much more to being a Guardian than heavy armor, self-preserving abilities and a big sword. Warrior seems up your alley. They’re very aggressive, versatile, durable and hit hard.

Madmartigan was a warrior wasn’t he. I think you have already decided deep down inside. But be a Norn, because Norns are cool.

AdamLiborio.8436:

Staff is pretty fun to use in WvW cause you fall into more of a support role which I usually hate but I ended up really enjoying.

I agree with this. I had an unexpected blast using staff in WvW. I think most people tend to go for max damage, so it was fun to sit back and act as support while all my teammates did the damage. WvW often comes down to chokepoints built into the terrain/structures. Being able to prevent enemies from crossing a certain line, even for a short duration, becomes extremely powerful.

I haven’t tried warrior, but I’m a guardian player and can give you an idea there.

a lot of guardian’s survival comes from utility and virtue skills, so you’ll be perfectly fine going full offence on your weapons.

guardian does have ranged weapon… it’s the scepter. his staff also has a range, but it’s rather unreliable as a damage weapon. Staff is more of a support weapon.

I played my guardian to lvl 34 and really enjoy him. He’s like an all-rounded knight and can adapt to different builds depending on the need. He uses a mix of physical and magical skills and are great for both support and damage.

Both are obviously good.. Warrior is obviously more of a lawn mower.. and Guardian is more of a control the field I guess. How is the warrior at surviving?

For instance.. if I am at a keep and 3 people come at me.. I am guessing with a Guardian I can hold off a little bit and keep them busy until hopefully help arrives and maybe even kill one.. With a warrior can I do the same, or am I just dead instantly.

sounds like if your going warrior, your 2h hammers or your kittening yourself too.

If it is team on team, do you see more of a "blow up the guardian first because he does too much to help the team’ or a “blow up the warrior because he is massive damage but easier to kill than the guardian”

If your both in a 2h set up.. is survivability equal? If you had a team of 5.. would you prefer a dps oriented Guardian or a Warrior with you

Is a Warrior more of a Michael Jordan while a Guardian a Magic Johnson?

Depends on what you feel like at the time Mad….do you feel like helping folks out or meleeing like crazy. Make one of each.

For what its worth…though, speaking of warriors

I like dual wielding on my warrior, personally. Longsword in main hand for a leaping attack & 2 other strikes. Then a dual weapon strike and moving whirlwind axe aoe in the offhand tabs.

For ranged I use a rifle….shoot everything you’ve got, then use the rifle butt to knock em back and get a couple more shots off before going blades for close in work.

Raf