Guild Wars 2

Hi folks,
for competitive tournament play, are guardians expected to play as, or reduced to bunker builds — or are they able to play more offensively and/or roaming as well?

Any input is appreciated, thank you.

Due to the fact that their best mobility skills (Judge’s Intervention) and what not usually require a target to use, their mobility moving around the map is far surpassed by your usual choices for offensive roamers. If you do have a target, then it’s great. But after the Greatsword Leap-weap swap bugfix, movement wise, the Guardian is reduced to swiftness. Thieves have infiltrator’s arrow + shadowstep, warriors can use rush and whirlwind to move around too.

Also, Guardians share the same HP modifier as thieves and elementalists, the lowest, meaning when they build for burst, they’re also way squishy. If you opt for Knight’s amulet instead, your burst is also much lower than a shatter mesmer or a stabby stab thief. Even if you inch the Guardian to full out offensive, its burst potential just isn’t as high as the more popular choices.

The fact that some classes serve as much better roamers than Guardians coupled with the fact that Guardians make incredible bunkers puts them in the defensive support/bunker role on most teams. In a tournament setting if a roamer can’t reinforce quickly, you may lose the point. You may also be needed at more than one point as it’s very possible they’re split pressuring your points. Being able to get from point to point fast and finish the fight is what you want in a roamer, Guardian’s don’t exactly fulfill that better than other classes.

Thank you, I appreciate your very well articulated and excellent response!

i played a roaming GS/staff/meditation guard with a few decent teams. i had lots of success when people understood what i could do. one team was dismissive of the role i was building for myself, while the other adopted my style and we proceeded to stomp lots of other teams.

few things that my guard had and other roamers didnt:
- team stability on demand (i ran stand your ground with 2 meditations)
- point control (staff 5, GS 5)
- 15 on demand stacks of might for the team with ~3k healing via Virtue of Resolve and staff 4 (not sure if other roamers can provide this)

but as guy above me said, mobility isnt the best, but it aint horrible either with staff 3 and GS leap.