Guardian in WvW
Why are you looking for small skirmishes specifically? You can do well offensively in big zergs.
Take the greatsword and hammer, and bring Signet of Wrath and Judge’s Intervention. With the greatsword leap and pull, the signet knockdown, the hammer immobilize, and the ability to combo the Judge’s Intervention leap into an instant hammer knockdown or ring of warding, you’ve got a whole set of snaring tools. Once you’re in close, switch to the greatsword and spin it to win it.
I still end up greatsword/staff half the time since the staff is an amazing support weapon (staff 4 with valor XI basically lets you heal half your health every 20 seconds when near allies, 15 when traited), and you can still snare people by dropping a line of warding as they run away, followed by a symbol (for extra DPS), an orb (for extra burst), and then switching to the greatsword to finish them off.
You do have to pick your targets a little more carefully, but you also have a better guarantee of a kill than AOE-oriented classes, which do a lot of overall damage but generally not enough to kill anybody actually trying to stay alive.
staff is a given, simple in terms of keeping up with the running speed. Other than that, get gear with +power, +health +defense (aka Ascalon gear, Soldiern in spvpv) stats and get down and dirty. Do not join giant zergs, stay with the smaller groups. Lootbags galore await.
I play support guardian, tons of kills and loot bags, I’m tired of seeing guardian threads so I’ll just say this – if you’re sitting in the back waiting on cooldowns you’re not doing it right, frontline hammer/scepter-shield guardian here, plenty of rewards.
Warsworn [WAR], Dragonbrand
Evermoor Alliance
I run http://www.gw2build.com/builds/the-soldier-wvw-wvw-soldier-guardian-tanky-teamfight-7556.html and I do amazing. Try it out.
Like the previous posters have mentioned – there are certainly ways for guardians to get their share of loot bags. It’s probably a bit more difficult that some other classes due to the inadequacy at range which has been discussed into the ground, but certainly doable.
However, guardians are certainly not useless, or even weak offensively in WvW. Offense in WvW is not only measured by how many people you kill, but how much you help your team’s objectives. Guardians have access to a lot of team support/ground control skills that can help turn the tide of a battle. A well-placed Wall of Reflection can dissolve a standoff, a ward/sanctuary can suddenly divide a mob blob into two smaller ones (those who know what they are doing and those who take a tumble). You won’t have the loot bags to show for it, but you will know if you have played an important part of the battle.
The way I look at it: play PvE if you want loot, but play WvW for the teamwork and awesome fun!
Wall of Reflect, Line of Warding, Sanctuary, Ring of Warding, Tome of Wrath
All game changing skills
Not everyone wants to play a support guardian in WvW. If you are saying that is the only valid option then the OP complaint is indeed correct.
Windows 10