Guild Wars 2

I am new to the game and chose to level a Guardian because I read it was a good first class, but I am beginning to wonder if that is actually true. I’m struggling on a few fronts.

First in group content its become pretty clear as the Guardian you are expected to be the leader in a sense. The other players expect you to know where to go and make the pulls. This puts me in a pretty awkward position since I don’t actually know where I am going or what to pull. Its really difficult to learn when it seems your party is also heavily relying on you to protect them, to buff them, to cleanse them, do damage, and stay alive.

The other issue I’m running into is pugging. Primarily that all the strategies and guides I’ve read seem to be centered around going zerker and rotate blinds/aegis until things die. But with pugs things don’t die so quickly and I often find myself running out of resources after so long.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to complain or cry. I thoroughly enjoy my Guardian, I think its a wonderful class. I’m just wondering if I’ve made a mistake trying to make it my first class, especially in group pve content.

Easiest answer overall..communicate about your skills and that you are learning to others.

In addition: take your time to master all the skills, do research online for the best build for your playing style and play the game..no one will hunt your head

And finally: Find a guild who appreciates new players and are willing to help them out

Good hunting

I think you would likely have gotten similar problems with other professions. Starting out dungeon content is tricky when a lot of people have been going at it for a while and expect you to be the same. Guards are favored for pulls but it’s not rare for others to do it too (for example as engie I do it a lot, given grenades have very high range, but staff eles can also do it, or warriors, etc, so don’t be afraid of waiting a bit to let one of your party members do the pull if you’re unsure where/how to do it, I find people will do it on their own if they don’t see anyone else going for it a lot of the time). And at least you have control over stuff like reflects & aegis so you don’t have to learn while in pugs that can’t projectile block to save their lives and die even more, as some of us non-guards did :P

And as JCROY said, warn at the beginning of the run you’re still learning – you don’t have to say you’re a huge newbie or whatever (though please, please warn if you run something for the first time, a lot of people will be tolerant and know to keep an eye on you so they can explain if it looks like you’re confused about what’s going on) but something along the lines of “hey I’m fairly new at this but I’m willing to listen and learn” will go a long way.

What makes you think that because you’re a guardian you’re the leader? o.O I never heard of this rule before.

Just my opinion here, but you will probably have a much easier time in pugs with a guardian that you will with most other classes. To a degree your team will “rely” on you for blinds/blocks/reflects/stability because the guard has pretty much the best defensive boons for the team. This isn’t a bad thing and don’t take it personally if you wipe or even if the team blames you unless they specifically ask you for something and you ignore it.

The thing is if you switched to any other class and didn’t have a guard in your group you wouldn’t have the defensive boons and would likely wipe just the same. The main idea here is to learn the encounters and you can do that as people mentioned above (putting in chat that you are learning on guard and looking for pointers). I made a guard with my second character and had some bad experiences with groups as I was learning (I specifically remember hearing “GUARD MORE BLOCKS!” before a rage quit). Honestly in pugs I never expect to get anything out of the other players unless we discuss first but once you learn the encounters on a guard you can do more to keep your team alive than pretty much any other class.

Bottom line is that it is a great class but just takes a little more time to be useful/good than some of the other classes (warrior for example is a really easy class to bring in parties because their party boons require less specific timing). Just keep learning and when you get better you will be able to carry bad groups through tough encounters.

Warrior is the best first class hands down. Anet originally made them and stated that they were intended as such. Guardian is OP and top of the classes at most things, making it a reasonable first choice, but Warrior is the best choice for a new player.

I was in the same boat as you with the Guard so I’ll try to give you somethings that I figured that kept people happy 9/10 in pugs in Dungeons. Not done much outside of that.

Take what I say with a pinch of salt cause I haven’t read all that many guides and I’m kinda pushing my Guard to be more tanky as I find I wipe more often when I go zerkers.

Purging Flames – Very nice Condi Removal and if the Group is stacking makes it a very good AoE Condi Clear for your group and the residual effect is that Conditions don’t last as long either. Its a fire field to boot for might stacking while fighting.

Hallowed Ground – Provides Stability as well as boons lasting longer. So anything you give to your team will last an extra 10% I believe. Again used if the group is stacking and another fire field is always nice.

I tend to have Wall of Reflection for the 3rd slot but it changes often depending. WoR if were stacking and I know that there’s going to be projectiles otherwise I tend to use “Stand your Ground” for the extra stability if you need it or “Hold the Line” for the extra Regen + Protection.

For Weapons I tend to use Hammer / something. I like the Hammer Auto Chain with the Symbol of Protection and the Mighty Blow (3 Secs CD Blast Finisher). GS is my go-to Second weapon. Mainly because I have 2 Handed Weaponed Skills on a shorter CD with traits. The blind Rotation is nice when your group is more spread out.

Sword + Shield if things are a little more mobile or you need more Projectile blockers (Shield of Absorption / Zealots Defense (?)). Shield of Judgement is meh though, the cone kinda kills it for me cause I normally have to step back to get those that are more to the side. Not used Focus or Torch so can’t really comment on those.

Sceptr for anything ranged. Other then that though I don’t really use it.

But like I said, this is mainly what I found while playing so take anything with a pinch of salt. Guard is perfectly viable for PvE its just getting used to where people stack in Dungeons and making sure the enemies get there. Watching a few youtube vids to see where stuff needs to be helped me a lot when learning dungeons. If you really can’t find any then just saying in the LFG that your new I’m sure someone would come and help =].

I have mained a Guardian for around 1000 hours of play. So I have a little experience in the matter :-).

Note 1… Major! Despite what people will tell you… Zerker gear on a Guardian is ONLY for elitest dungeon running. For leveling go with Cleric gear (old school build to level) Power/Toughness/Healing Power.

This is especially true if you are in groups that expect you to be “tanky” but still want you to be buffing them and adding a slight addition to heals. (Healing Power is not the best stat on paper… but will make a huge difference).