Guild Wars 2

So I just made a new Guardian and I can’t figure which I like better the torch or shield just wondering what people thinks plays better and is more of a help for a party and which would be better for soloing.

Torch for soloing
Shield for group play
I would use focus for both, though.

Different parts of the game require different so called “builds”
If you want to be supportive to a group for events/dungeons/fractals, adjust your gear and traits accordingly. if you want to be solo’ing in PvE (Player versus Environment), you do the same…this also goes for PvP (Player versus Player) or WvW (World versus World)
Take a look at gw2build.com for reviews on existing builds or make a new one that fits your needs.
As you already noticed, I did not reply to your question about torch or shield..but thats because you have to answer the first question before..what am i in which part of the game
Hope I helped a bit

PvE don’t even look at either.

Focus (Focus 4 = Blind + traited Vulnerability, Focus 5 = 3 blocks OR burst damage, I’ve had it hit for 25k+, if you block nothing + blast finisher)

WvW, hammer/staff.

Torch and Shield are bad weapons for pretty much everything in the game. Shield is only good for nodes protection in sPvP and to push people off a cliff in WvW. Torch is good nowhere.

PvE : Greatsword, Sword, Focus, Scepter are kings, with Staff, Hammer being good in some circumstance.

WvW : Hammer, Staff, Greastsword are the best, with Scepter, Focus and Shield good in some situation.

Keep in mind that this is in general. Some build can take advantage of some weapons i didn’t mention and in the end it also about what you like to play. Also i’m not talking about sPvP because i’m not playing enough in that mode.

I must be an aberration then, as I’m loving the scepter/torch combo on my Guard – scepter for better ranged attacks than staff (IMO) and torch gives decent support to the scepter skills.

Of course, on anything, ymmv.

I play PVE for the most part. The torch and scepter work great for ranged combat focused on damage. If I want to mix defense and support into the build I’ll replace the torch with a focus, and replace the scepter with a mace. The fact that focus (5) has a blast finisher makes it better than the shield in my opinion. If you setup a field by yourself (mace 2) you can then use the blast to increase the effectiveness.

It’s possible to play a high DPS guardian with sceptre/torch and zerker gear. In PVE it’s quite powerful but the slow, telegraphed attack and dependence on static AoE will get you slaughtered in PvP.

Thanks for the ideas, I was wondering because I really like to skills of the torch they’re a lot of fun to play with, but the shield has seemed to play better with the sword it just feels, well smoother I guess. So I was wondering mostly if there was some sort of play style with the torch I was missing or if it just wasn’t really all that good.

Its not that the Torch is not good, its that it just don’t add anything special. The first skill burn enemies, wow the guardian burn each 5 attack and in a party of 5 you probably always have almost constant fire. It help in solo play, but most of the game people play in group its a MMO after all not a single player RPG. The second skill is a condi removal. This can be useful if you didn’t took any condi removal in your build, but i tend to so condition like direct attack. I prefer dodge them and don’t rely too much on condi removal.

^ That’s fair. It sounds to me like we both have different styles of play.

A little since I’m trying to build a character as close as possible to my Warrior/ele from GW1 and there really is no class like that, but guardian gets me the close as I can get for now