Guild Wars 2

So I’m trying to decide between these two classes. Currently, I have a level 43 warrior. He’s fun to play and I’ve generally enjoyed leveling him so far. Normally, I play the paladin class characters so I was naturally drawn to guardians but despite the fact this game doesn’t have the whole holy trinity thing, coming from a WoW vanilla background I was worried about being pigeon holed into some sort of healer/support role.

To make a long story short, I just wanted to know what some of the pros and cons were of playing either classes at level 80. Because I literally only just made a guardian who’s barely level 5 but I’m having tons of fun already and the weapon skill choices seem like they definitely have greater potential. I’m assuming when it comes to support, the guardian wins out there, but would I be right in thinking that the warrior will be able to put out better dps then?

From what I understand, if you were to rank the 8 classes in the game for current balance of power, Guardian and Warrior both come in near the top. Guardian is the best class for making use of Retaliation, and has very strong self-sustain and control abilities, but actually has a strikingly low hp pool. Warrior has one of the highest base hp pools, some good control as well, and is often paired with thief for the highest burst damage potential. Both classes are strong at AoE damage output as well.

A great way to get a feel for a class, and decide on skills and traits (even for PvE purposes), is to check out the heart of the mists. You can travel there freely from anywhere, using the pvp tab on your hero panel. You will have your level increased to 80, as well as getting all skills and traits unlocked while in the area. There are PvP item vendors who will let you try any weapon and armor combination you’d like as well. Then you can head to the sparring NPCs or the test dummy golems to get a feel for your damage and combat potential.

What is your goal with this game/class decision? Do you just want to hit hard? Or do you want to enjoy the character you are playing?

My advice; Play the class that is more FUN to you.
In most instances, you can make all classes hit for about the same damage (except for thieves. No one else can pull off a 2 hit kill in PvP), but, some times, in different ways.

I have played a Guardian since the very first minute the game launched on headstart weekend. I was level 80 within 3 days. I have played nearly 400 hours of GW2 and about 250 hours on my Guardian alone. I am STILL discovering builds with it for numerous effects.
Like Eleint said, a good way to test is in Heart of the Mists. But dont cut a class short for a damage output. You wont know whats right for you until you get out there and try it out.

woah never had an idea about the mists thing, definitely gonna try that out.

Well from my personal experience warrior is simpler to play (to play it well to be correct). And have better DPS 10-20% tops, but you should easily keep it up with retaliation, besides I haven’t seen pure DPS guard build, well it seems not to be possible, as traits lines kinda makes it impossible. Also distance fight with guard is harder, because skills seems to be much weaker.