Guild Wars 2

fairly new to the game, and i really only play melee classes, ive tried the thief and it really just wasnt for me. So i decided upon picking up warrior or guardian. I just dont know which is better for wvwvw? be it dueling, sieging, team fighting, etc. Id be GS guardian. And GS/1h axe, shield warrior. Tips? advice?

i would recommend guardians over warriors. if built and played properly, guardians can be unstoppable juggernauts, plus their group support is fantastic. i’d also recommend keeping a hammer and shield handy for frontline melee work. plus they’re pretty much able to sleep their way through PvE.

don’t get me wrong, warriors can be pretty good too, but guardians are just on a whole other level.

It ain’t easy being a Warrior, but it is awesome.
Guardian seems fun too.
Try ’em both!

Zaknafein.9576:

fairly new to the game, and i really only play melee classes, ive tried the thief and it really just wasnt for me. So i decided upon picking up warrior or guardian. I just dont know which is better for wvwvw? be it dueling, sieging, team fighting, etc. Id be GS guardian. And GS/1h axe, shield warrior. Tips? advice?

It’s hard to recommend one over another since your interests on WvW seem to be so broad. The difference between these is mainly two things:

First, warrior in general is more mobile which makes both chasing and breaking out of fights, a well as navigating through the battlefield easier.

Second, they are quite different in terms of EHP (effective HP). Guardian has relatively small HP pool but can support it with a lot of healing/regen/block abilities while warrior has big HP pool and tends to sustain it with defensive skills like stances, cc/condition reduction etc. Of course builds/stat-builds can differ wildly, but that’s the general idea.

Another thing that I’d caution you against is getting into mentality where you lock yourself down to particular set of weapons. Many weapon sets are useful on WvW depending on situation so it is better if you have a full set of weapons in your backpack and get familiar with them to know their strengths and weaknesses. Same goes for stat-build (gear) and build itself, but that’s more advanced stuff you probably don’t need to bother about from the get go. Just keep that in mind.

Both hammer Guardian and hammer Warrior are very, very desirable in any 10+ group (Guardian for its blast finisher/stun, Warrior for its stun). If you are a GS Guardian/Warrior in group combat you’re wasting everybodies time. Of course you can swap to that if you want to solo or do small scale.

In terms of builds you only really have to consider that you need to have 1600+ toughness/vitality for large group combat or again, you’re wasting everybodies time.

Dawdler.8521:

Both hammer Guardian and hammer Warrior are very, very desirable in any 10+ group (Guardian for its blast finisher/stun, Warrior for its stun). If you are a GS Guardian/Warrior in group combat you’re wasting everybodies time. Of course you can swap to that if you want to solo or do small scale.

In terms of builds you only really have to consider that you need to have 1600+ toughness/vitality for large group combat or again, you’re wasting everybodies time.

This is just outright stupid, pretty much all parts of it. In a group you play a role, your gear and your build should reflect that role. What your role is depends on your group, your position in it, and the synergy you are trying to accomplish. This blanket view that everyone needs to stack toughness/vitality and play hammer fail is just a zerglet, brain dead approach to the game that involves rushing in large numbers smashing face into keyboard and ignoring any kind of group synergy.

As for the OP, both classes have solid choices for a variety of roles. Best to play them both for a bit and see what you like best.

Niim.9260:

Dawdler.8521:

Both hammer Guardian and hammer Warrior are very, very desirable in any 10+ group (Guardian for its blast finisher/stun, Warrior for its stun). If you are a GS Guardian/Warrior in group combat you’re wasting everybodies time. Of course you can swap to that if you want to solo or do small scale.

In terms of builds you only really have to consider that you need to have 1600+ toughness/vitality for large group combat or again, you’re wasting everybodies time.

This is just outright stupid, pretty much all parts of it. In a group you play a role, your gear and your build should reflect that role. What your role is depends on your group, your position in it, and the synergy you are trying to accomplish. This blanket view that everyone needs to stack toughness/vitality and play hammer fail is just a zerglet, brain dead approach to the game that involves rushing in large numbers smashing face into keyboard and ignoring any kind of group synergy.

As for the OP, both classes have solid choices for a variety of roles. Best to play them both for a bit and see what you like best.

well i mean :x i already know i wanna do lots of melee dps..i like doing dmg..and im incapable of playing ranged..i always end up next to melee when i play ranged..thats why i say guardian or warrior. :x

Zaknafein.9576:

well i mean :x i already know i wanna do lots of melee dps..i like doing dmg..and im incapable of playing ranged..i always end up next to melee when i play ranged..thats why i say guardian or warrior. :x

I got that, I said try them both.

Niim.9260:

This is just outright stupid, pretty much all parts of it. In a group you play a role, your gear and your build should reflect that role. What your role is depends on your group, your position in it, and the synergy you are trying to accomplish. This blanket view that everyone needs to stack toughness/vitality and play hammer fail is just a zerglet, brain dead approach to the game that involves rushing in large numbers smashing face into keyboard and ignoring any kind of group synergy.

Synergy?

Synergy is achieved through the use of different classes performing a role better than others, not through diversity in builds.

An example would be an Elementalist popping a waterfield and 5 guardians blasting with hammer in it. I’ve never seen anyone comment that “omg we only need 4 hammer guardians, have to have a GS guardian too for synergy!”. That’s 1 less healing blast for minimal, if any, gain to the group.

But as I said this only apply to large groups. Zergs can and will have random compositions. Of course so can some large groups as well – there’s always the oddball.

It never hurt to try to train pugs to use the proper weapon for a situation and not get entire guilds killed with berserker specs because the enemy guild rallied on them.

Dawdler.8521:

Niim.9260:

This is just outright stupid, pretty much all parts of it. In a group you play a role, your gear and your build should reflect that role. What your role is depends on your group, your position in it, and the synergy you are trying to accomplish. This blanket view that everyone needs to stack toughness/vitality and play hammer fail is just a zerglet, brain dead approach to the game that involves rushing in large numbers smashing face into keyboard and ignoring any kind of group synergy.

Synergy?

Synergy is achieved through the use of different classes performing a role better than others, not through diversity in builds.

Synergy is achieved by whatever plays well together in particular circumstances, be it builds, utility skills or weapon skills.

Guardian GS 5 followed by warrior hammer stun (or even by hammer guardian 3/5) is quite a nice combo.

Also, do not underestimate 4 on GS. Total damage it deals considering retal application is huge. And 3 is what gives guardian mobility allowing them among other thing to initiate said combo timely. Blind on 3 is also nice.

2 is what can cause problems for guardians themselves but the damage output is not something to ignore. It is just need to be used with caution and awareness of opponents’ boons

It’s not like you are limited to only one guardian in your warband (well, if that isn’t small scale). Both GS and Hammer guardians are valuable and you better have both in your raid.

Try both. I personally like playing with warrior more, there is more diversity. Mostly use hammer and sword+warhorn/mace (and now love sword+sword), but then can easy switch to strong ranged when needed, i.e. rifle/bow. Guardian and warrior both bring good group support, even though guardian one is probably more desirable.

Boring but more helpful to small roaming groups/zergs: Guardian.

More fun and challenging for roaming, small group and zergs: Warrior.

It essentially comes down to how good you are at playing a class and if you like to have fun.

Guardian is just abuse of an OP class with lack of boon duration with a terribly boring rotation that can be keyboard face rolled with ease. You have to be extra bad not to be carried by the guardian class.

I prefer Warrior after trying to level a guardian and dying of boredom.

Very flexible & fun class whether you dealing damage directly or with conditions, or AoE support with banners/shouts (using fields as appropriate).