Yeah? I hadn’t thought about them because everyone keeps trashing them on the forums (particularly the PvP ones). Saying how anet has abandoned their development and left them performing worse than any other class.
That’s only because they haven’t played guardian :P
What are they REALLY like?
Biggest problem in PvP is Traitline Diversity. You’re pretty much stuck with Defense and Berzerker (Everyone’s stuck with their elite spec). But warriors actually aren’t quite as stuck with berzerker as other classes are with their elite spec, since it’s really just ‘Moar Damage", and the other traitlines all bring significant specialization strengths (Strength is mobility and damage, and support when paired with Tactics. Tactics is support. Discipline is the foundation traitline, so it’s pretty much mandatory if you want any flexibility, but it can be ditched if you don’t need it. Defense is perhaps an over-concentration of the Warrior’s survivability). The new patch has changed warrior viability up again after months of flagging. It’ll be a while before the meta settles.
As awesome as greatsword is, the other weapons do give unique playstyles and room to experiment, and with Discipline’s “Fast Hands” minor trait, you can swap and combo weapon skills more readily in combat.
Longbow seems to be the go-to support weapon, with its trait being in Tactics, and providing ranged damage, a (Fire) combo field, and a blast finisher, in addition to a few control effects.
Greatsword is an all-around solid weapon, with an evade, excellent cleave (Every skill but 5, but dat F1 is SPIN TO WIN), mobility (3 and 5), range (4) and burst damage (2) … but it completely lacks CC (It used to have a daze for an F1, but that sucked. Now we have SPIN OF DEATH). Which is provided by Hammers and maces.
It has the highest baseline survivability of any class without needing to resort to fancy tricks. Unfortunately, it also lacks a number of survivability-enhancing fancy tricks. It provides solid offensive support in the form of shouts and banners, and, of course Phalanx Strength+Forceful Greatsword for All The Might.
In PvP, the warrior is valuable as either a solid bunker, or as a short-lived smartbomb in teamfights (Avoid 1-on-1 as warrior against most classes, I think. You are most effective when you’re cleaving through your plural enemies, with someone behind to mop up the mess you leave)
