Guild Wars 2

Some of you might have seen me complain about DHs as I think they’re pretty broken right now, waaayyy too reliable in 1v1s, easy to use and stackable. But for once I’m going to say something positive because I think it needs to be addressed. Guardian, in my opinion, is the current BEST example of build diversity.

I have found out of all the professions, guardian gives me the most options on how I can play, I can get creative and play weird stuff with some success. I’m not saying all these builds are meta or even OP, but I can make some really funny stuff. Here’s a few examples:

-Tanky support guard (AH guard but can run some meditations)
-Burn Guard
-Burning Spirit weapons (sounds stupid and it is, but it can hit really hard lol)
-Standard high damage DH
-Symbolic
-Menders DH

There was pretty much an option for each role, I could be a healer, a tank, high power damage, high condition damage. I don’t feel tied down to just running the elite spec like most other professions either, there were some things vanilla guardian could do better than DH and I really like that.

There is diversity, but I’d argue that some of those builds are not very good for the role they fill. That is debatable, but I just wanted to put that out there.

I’ve been rocking as a Guardian going on five years, and it’s been very enjoyable. I always feel like I can do something, even if it may not what I want to do at first

Agree!
Give everyone that F1 F2 F3 F4 block block block blind blind blind heal heal inv inv inv return again~ again~ then everyone with have a great build diversity.

mrauls.6519:

There is diversity, but I’d argue that some of those builds are not very good for the role they fill. That is debatable, but I just wanted to put that out there.

I’ve been rocking as a Guardian going on five years, and it’s been very enjoyable. I always feel like I can do something, even if it may not what I want to do at first

I’m not going to say Some of these listed are the absolute best at their role, but I can say I’ve seen success with all of them. I like the fact you have the options there readily available.

It was kinda like back then when AH guard was meta, but you’d still see people running a more GS offensive guard. Sure it wasn’t meta, but I was impressed some player’s level of success with it.

Most of those builds are mediocre to garbage. I wouldn’t play anything but the meta DH spec or pre-hot burning. I mean spirit weapons come on dude. Please don’t roll with garbage like that in ranked unless your playing silver or bronze. Those were fun to mess with back in the day when they were basically invulnerable but still a troll build.

Meanwhile Condi Necro just got eradicated from existence…..

Meanwhile mesmer’s have had the same exact builds(1) since season 2.

This is also the reason I think most people believe Guardian is OP at times. You never know what you are going to face. You might expect traps, see the other team has no real condi classes, so take off your condi cleanse, then get completely bombed by burn and die horribly. So many times I’ve seen an entire team die to Torch 5 because they didn’t bring condi cleanse.

steelheart.7386:

Most of those builds are mediocre to garbage. I wouldn’t play anything but the meta DH spec or pre-hot burning. I mean spirit weapons come on dude. Please don’t roll with garbage like that in ranked unless your playing silver or bronze. Those were fun to mess with back in the day when they were basically invulnerable but still a troll build.

Not every build is going to be perfect, but it’s a good call back to a few years ago when people would come up with some really weird ideas and have success with it. Like I would laugh at the idea of a warrior running full signets and someone not only made it work, but it worked really well.

Same goes for burning spirit weapons guardian, my first impression was “wow this is garbage” but I saw a few people just really dedicated to making it work. They had a build where it was just mostly blocks and the two spirit weapons just melted people.

It obviously has its flaws but you know what, someone was trying something different and being creative and it worked for them. I really miss that

Have to agree…. guard may be a cheese class to begin with, but they definitely have the most options. You can make any trait line work with just about any build. dh is still kinda required cause of virtues, but the other two lines are free game. Sadly you don’t see this with any other profession.

Uncle Dalty.8327:

Have to agree…. guard may be a cheese class to begin with, but they definitely have the most options. You can make any trait line work with just about any build. dh is still kinda required cause of virtues, but the other two lines are free game. Sadly you don’t see this with any other profession.

I would say for an offensive build, DH is the better option but yeah, like you said the traitlines can be changed for more options.

Ever tried running warrior without defense and discipline? it doesn’t work lol, so you have to give up berserker but core warrior is too weak so by doing that you’re giving up your offensive presence. When I give up the DH traitline, I feel like I’m getting something in exchange that can be used.

For example, I give up DH to dedicate more to burning, I give up DH to become a more tanky support healer, and they both actually work.