Guild Wars 2

A couple weeks ago I started an Elementalist and was shocked at how squishy they seemed to be. I died very often, and even when I didn’t die, I lost a lot of health even on 1v1 fights (PvE). Most of the suggestions I heard were to trait into vitality and toughness lines, but I wasn’t happy with this because I felt like I shouldn’t waste my traits simply to make the profession playable.

Now I’m playing a Guardian, and while the experience was nowhere near as bad as that of my Elementalist, I still seem to take a lot of damage from time to time. So far I’m only traiting in Zeal for +Power, and also Virtues for Inspired Virtue. I don’t want to have to trait into Valor and/or Honor just to remedy the issue of losing health fast.

Is it something else I’m doing wrong? Perhaps not using my skills or utilities properly? I mainly use the GS, Signet of Resolve, Bane Signet, Signet of Judgment, and the third one sort of varies as I experiment with different ones.

I use Virtue of Justice often, since the CD is manageable, but the other two Virtues I often don’t mess with unless I’m in real trouble.

I suppose the reason I even thought of my Elementalist, since I’m not actually dying like that character was, is because the Guardian has the same base health as an Elementalist, which strikes me as odd and makes me think that’s part of the issue.

Or is it simply that ALL professions, even the warrior who also wears heavy armor and has more health, has this issue until you trait properly for defense? I know that my necro never really had an issue with losing health or dying, even before I got traits that restored my health.

Thanks.

Most classes feel a bit weak in the early levels until you get most of the skills and/or the stronger traits down the line. If you think this, or ele is bad, try low level mesmer haha…….

Actually my first character was a mesmer, and I never really noticed any problems with dying or even losing too much health.

I don’t recommend just stacking signets. Use utilities that provide consistent boon coverage, like Hold the Line. Regeneration and Protection are a big deal for a class with a low health pool and no clones, pets, or minions to draw aggro. The Guardian has an unusually high leveling skill cap due to its lack of tankiness at lower levels.

Also consider secondary weapon sets included the focus off-hand. It’s 5 skill is invaluable for defensive play. Running a scepter for kiting or mace for additionally defensive play while leveling will also help.

Edit: When I was leveling, effective use of blinds, blocks, and dodging made everything much easier. I recommend putting 15 points into Radiance while leveling for VoJ blinds, shorter SoR cooldown, and VoJ recharge on kill.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

I don’t recommend just stacking signets. Use utilities that provide consistent boon coverage, like Hold the Line. Regeneration and Protection are a big deal for a class with a low health pool and no clones, pets, or minions to draw aggro. The Guardian has an unusually high leveling skill cap due to its lack of tankiness at lower levels.

Also consider secondary weapon sets included the focus off-hand. It’s 5 skill is invaluable for defensive play. Running a scepter for kiting or mace for additionally defensive play while leveling will also help.

Edit: When I was leveling, effective use of blinds, blocks, and dodging made everything much easier. I recommend putting 15 points into Radiance while leveling for VoJ blinds, shorter SoR cooldown, and VoJ recharge on kill.

Right now I’m using the other utility skill that grants you all boons (and takes conditions from allies, which doesn’t matter much for my solo play). It has higher regen than Hold the Line, but perhaps HTL has a longer duration?

My other weapon set is Sce/Torch, which is fun, but I prefer to use the GS and be in melee range. I don’t want to have to rely on switching to a different weapon set because I’m taking too much damage. I’m more concerned with the fact of taking too much damage in the first place. It just seems like something a Guardian shouldn’t be doing, even in melee.

Regen is regen, regardless of the source. I suggest using both SY and HTL for higher uptime of both regen and protection. I’ve used them both together since I unlocked my second utility slot and it’s very efficient.

GS is my main weapon as well, and it has been since I started leveling. It’s not a bad weapon, you just have to get used to using other weapons while you level.

It’s going to look like you’re taking more damage than you are because of your low health pool. The best you can do is upgrade your armor when you can and use your defensive abilities (blinds/blocks/dodge) more liberally. Realistically you should be able to kill most foes without taking…well, really any damage at all.

With the failure of developers with the Engineer, i went Guardian and never looked back, though i hope my little guy becomes useful at some point other than an escape artist.

I follow three folks on this forum and have learned a ton. My first solo fight with this class in the mists jumping puzzle against three other folks was great i killed two and the ele finally took me down, but what a long fight. My Engineer would have been dead in seconds in a three on one. My education continues.

Though not as good at escaping as my old Engy, i can go into active shrine areas etc and survive, wheras my old main could not and would be attritioned down in short order.

For support i am much more versatile, from healing, buffs, taking conditions from folks in party, popping the skill to turn all conditions to boons is too sweet.

Damage is low though that doesnt bother me with the punishment i can take. I look forward to the day when we can button spec two or more different builds without the need to go back and respec, which is an old game mechanic, not stating copy other games……but if it works.

Right now I’m using “Strong” gear for power/precision. I suppose I could devote my trinkets to vitality and toughness, instead of more power/precision, although I feel like for simply PvE leveling, it always seems to be standard practice to focus on damage output, and worry about survivability later. Perhaps that rule doesn’t apply to GW2 though…

Graill.8596:

With the failure of developers with the Engineer, i went Guardian and never looked back, though i hope my little guy becomes useful at some point other than an escape artist.

I follow three folks on this forum and have learned a ton. My first solo fight with this class in the mists jumping puzzle against three other folks was great i killed two and the ele finally took me down, but what a long fight. My Engineer would have been dead in seconds in a three on one. My education continues.

Though not as good at escaping as my old Engy, i can go into active shrine areas etc and survive, wheras my old main could not and would be attritioned down in short order.

For support i am much more versatile, from healing, buffs, taking conditions from folks in party, popping the skill to turn all conditions to boons is too sweet.

Damage is low though that doesnt bother me with the punishment i can take. I look forward to the day when we can button spec two or more different builds without the need to go back and respec, which is an old game mechanic, not stating copy other games……but if it works.

It’s great to hear how durable the Guardian can be, but I have to stress that in my case, I’m only talking about PvE right now. None of my concerns so far are PvP-related, just in case that matters to anyone.

I also just stacked Power and Precision while leveling because I was clueless and wanted to kill things faster. I actually still think that’s the way to go. It’s just a matter of utilizing your skills and traits properly to accommodate your gear of choice.

Like I said, you can easily get away with taking almost zero damage against mobs in PvE if played properly, even when gearing purely for damage. The only time I remember really dying while leveling was against very large groups and against certain bosses.

On PvE anything works…. even naked characters with reseted traits!

I’m quite surprised that you’d have no problems with mesmers early on and yet have difficulties with guardians. Are you over thinking this? Guardians are as simplistic as can be in the early levels. Don’t try to fight things higher level than you at first, don’t try to take on more than 3 things at once, don’t stand still and try to tank the slow big hits. There’s really not much to it then bashing the mob till it dies.

While ago i started guardian myself.
And man. Biggest mistake i’ve ever done was to go zeal for power.
It’s the truly worst tree u can spec into. it’s just bad end of discussion.
It doesn’t give you anything good.

I retraited early at 20 lvl for prec/crit dmg build and put 3/3 power/prec runes.

Crit rate was incredible as dmg was too. things died so fast.

watch some of youtube builds. Noone takes zeal cause it suck for guardian. just sin’t worth that 300 power or even 100.
The amount of good traits you get in other trait lines are just to good.
Now I can take up to 10 mobs of my lvl and still get out of combat with full hp :>

Mrowqa.3861:

While ago i started guardian myself.
And man. Biggest mistake i’ve ever done was to go zeal for power.
It’s the truly worst tree u can spec into. it’s just bad end of discussion.
It doesn’t give you anything good.

I retraited early at 20 lvl for prec/crit dmg build and put 3/3 power/prec runes.

Crit rate was incredible as dmg was too. things died so fast.

watch some of youtube builds. Noone takes zeal cause it suck for guardian. just sin’t worth that 300 power or even 100.
The amount of good traits you get in other trait lines are just to good.
Now I can take up to 10 mobs of my lvl and still get out of combat with full hp :>

10 pts to Zeal for 10% damage while burning is nice.

Kami.7369:

Mrowqa.3861:

While ago i started guardian myself.
And man. Biggest mistake i’ve ever done was to go zeal for power.
It’s the truly worst tree u can spec into. it’s just bad end of discussion.
It doesn’t give you anything good.

I retraited early at 20 lvl for prec/crit dmg build and put 3/3 power/prec runes.

Crit rate was incredible as dmg was too. things died so fast.

watch some of youtube builds. Noone takes zeal cause it suck for guardian. just sin’t worth that 300 power or even 100.
The amount of good traits you get in other trait lines are just to good.
Now I can take up to 10 mobs of my lvl and still get out of combat with full hp :>

10 pts to Zeal for 10% damage while burning is nice.

No not really. cause most of our pasive burns go from 1s to max 5 ( active virtue ). the dmg gain is not realiable

this is worth when ur taking full condi build with + condi durations

Mrowqa.3861:

Kami.7369:

Mrowqa.3861:

While ago i started guardian myself.
And man. Biggest mistake i’ve ever done was to go zeal for power.
It’s the truly worst tree u can spec into. it’s just bad end of discussion.
It doesn’t give you anything good.

I retraited early at 20 lvl for prec/crit dmg build and put 3/3 power/prec runes.

Crit rate was incredible as dmg was too. things died so fast.

watch some of youtube builds. Noone takes zeal cause it suck for guardian. just sin’t worth that 300 power or even 100.
The amount of good traits you get in other trait lines are just to good.
Now I can take up to 10 mobs of my lvl and still get out of combat with full hp :>

10 pts to Zeal for 10% damage while burning is nice.

No not really. cause most of our pasive burns go from 1s to max 5 ( active virtue ). the dmg gain is not realiable

this is worth when ur taking full condi build with + condi durations

Or you could look at it as if you hit Justice, your entire group applies a burn and the duration stacks to 25 immediately.

For beginning guardians, try to get as much protection uptime as possible. Protection is really the only thing that makes the guardian a tank class. All the rest of the defensive skills like aegis, blind, invulnerability, and CC make the class really the only one that can stand in melee range in between dodges.

When leveling a guardian for keeps, I recommend bringing along Hold the Line and perhaps Signet of Judgment just to give yourself some breathing room while you learn how to space out your blocks and more importantly how to press the emergency button sequence correctly.