Guild Wars 2

I was having so much fun leveling a guardian, loving the skills and all DH stuff, but after reading this forum i’m really scared!! Even though i like the class, i don’t want to play something that will be dead weight, refused in groups and left aside

No they are not. Forums almost always present the most negative side of things because people will often come here to complain, but rarely come here to say something positive. Guardians could certainly use changes in certain areas but they are by no means terrible or useless. If you like the class then play it.

@TheWadeTucker

You have a lot of, “Muh Meta”, minded people who come on here and just bash on the class because it doesn’t perform like the Condi Tempest that just camps fire to do top-tier DPS.

If you find the class fun, play it, because you’re naturally going to perform better on a class that you know and enjoy, opposed to something, “Super-meta” that the rotation is going to bore you to tears.

Good luck, have fun, and if you are having trouble getting into groups, get some friends or guildies to help you out.

Thanks a lot everyone, thats really great! I’m still at level 36 and already enjoy it very much, gonna keep playing, thanks again =D

No class is truly terrible that you regret levelling it, playing it or even maining it.

The complaints come solely from comparisons with other classes and what each class can provide in the meta. So, while guardian needs a lot of help in several areas, you still have a fine time playing the game as the class.

And keep in mind that the usually people that complain about guardian still remain guard mains.

Meta’s come and go. It’s true that at this moment guardian is a bit lackluster compared to the other classes, but that’ll change. Sadly DH was a terrible espec compared to most of the others, and the core guard lacks a great deal as well. That being said, once they bridge the current gap between power and condi builds the class will be right at the top again.

TheWadeTucker.6173:

Thanks a lot everyone, thats really great! I’m still at level 36 and already enjoy it very much, gonna keep playing, thanks again =D

You always have to play what makes you feel better.
Classes always get a hit from meta anyway, so don’t bother chasing the “so called meta” cause you will always be on the QQ side.
After all, the whole thing about guardian was just a false(IMO) statement, and was for "optimal " side,not “viable”.Guardians will always be viable.
So no worries about qq.

I still see guardians in raids and the dps potential is still there. The problem is that in order to keep up with other dps classes u need to perform super good. What does that mean?

It means that guardians are only a setback if the player isnt that experienced while they perform very well otherwise. Truthfully most guardians i’ve seen are really struggling with dps even though the rotations are ez af.
It is a player problem first and foremost and it reminds me of that bad stigma certain classes had like ranger/necro cause most just run terrible builds (like bearbow/camp lb or power necro). Same with guard, the more people see guards underperforming the more the class is gonna get pushed away and sadly that is the case atm.

It’s not about underperforming. A perfectly-played guardian can’t outdps a perfectly played Tempest, and condi tempest is extremely easy to play.

Spend enough time in any of the profession forums, and you’ll get the impression that the professions sucks. As RabbitUp said, people do tend to come to the forum to complain, not to praise. Most of the time, however, this is because people do enjoy the profession enough to want it to be better (otherwise, they complain that the profession is OP to try to make it get nerfed so the profession they do prefer is better in comparison…).

Guardian did get hit hard in the last balance patch, and as cronos indicates, a large part of that in the high-end PvE context is because the recent changes shifted the meta to be very much in favour of conditions. Since guardian doesn’t really have a viable sustained condition build, this means it’s struggling. It’s still one of the better professions at power damage, but it’s not the best, and power damage is quite a bit behind condition damage at the moment.

It’s probably reasonable to expect that the balance will shift next patch, though.

RabbitUp.8294:

It’s not about underperforming. A perfectly-played guardian can’t outdps a perfectly played Tempest, and condi tempest is extremely easy to play.

Very true, still guardian atm has a very low skill cap as far as dps rotations go, keeping up perfect rotations is rather ez unless we talking Matthias. Whereas Tempest takes time and effort to master and even then lots of things happen. Dont forget that tempest relies on picking up conjured weapons (sometimes people pick them up messing up rotation or warriors put their banners right on top), also tempest is by far the class that heavily relies on permanent alacrity otherwise rotations get messy.

Atm guardian rotation is very easy but we’ll see how firebrand will change it. It’s said that tomes will function like engineer kits so they might bring more complexity to the class.

TheWadeTucker.6173:

I was having so much fun leveling a guardian, loving the skills and all DH stuff, but after reading this forum i’m really scared!! Even though i like the class, i don’t want to play something that will be dead weight, refused in groups and left aside

Most people complain because guardian has better power capabbilities than condi. So guard has some disadvantage to other classes.
But never the less guard can do great and deal decent dmg with good survivability.

InsaneQR.7412:

TheWadeTucker.6173:

I was having so much fun leveling a guardian, loving the skills and all DH stuff, but after reading this forum i’m really scared!! Even though i like the class, i don’t want to play something that will be dead weight, refused in groups and left aside

Most people complain because guardian has better power capabbilities than condi. So guard has some disadvantage to other classes.
But never the less guard can do great and deal decent dmg with good survivability.

people complain cause if u dont play for power creep (damage output build optimizations) guard cant do anything, since lacks support builds, guess that players that dont like to play dps roles will keep being farmer over dps gimmicks classes/builds.

Shouts are very underwhelming the way they work, mace shield has nice blocks but game changed to much more aoe being spammed that defensive guard builds are useless.

theres a huge gap between performance builds alone, guard better defend allies with DPS spam traps or whatever than support roles…

zoomborg.9462:

I still see guardians in raids and the dps potential is still there. The problem is that in order to keep up with other dps classes u need to perform super good. What does that mean?

It means that guardians are only a setback if the player isnt that experienced while they perform very well otherwise. Truthfully most guardians i’ve seen are really struggling with dps even though the rotations are ez af.

The latter is the case with pretty much any class. Outside of dedicated raid groups, most people just have no clue of how to deal dps. Even in T4 fractals, the supposedly hardest content below raids, most pugs don’t even get close to the dps of an almighty hammer guard.

So for the OP, guardian still is a great class in most content. Not that great for raids anymore, but still more than viable. Don’t be deterred by all the QQ.

Uh, we are amazing in wvw – the backbone of that entire mode.

In pve the only place our use is questioned in extreme detail is high end speed run raid clears.

In pvp we are pretty great at 1v1 and holding a spot.

We could use some extram oomph in pve for sure, but thats really it. I imagine the expac is going to try and address this.

Proteus.6320:

Uh, we are amazing in wvw – the backbone of that entire mode.

In pve the only place our use is questioned in extreme detail is high end speed run raid clears.

In pvp we are pretty great at 1v1 and holding a spot.

We could use some extram oomph in pve for sure, but thats really it. I imagine the expac is going to try and address this.

doubt it proteus, players are complaning alot from condis and Anet dotn want to balance that since will cut players from leeching damage output with condi based, they will use te next spec to counter that, transform condis on allies on aoe damage or cleanse ally condi to aoe fire condi spread, that will be the flavour of the class…

Anet dont think much on how they design stuff, they just implement basic solutions and will try to adress(has in hide or cover) with class design so they dont need to touch the unbalance.

PVE-Useless Power/Condi builds sucks vs other classes
PVP-Nice power/tanky/condi builds
WvW-One of the best class for zerg/GvG battle

Pecar.1236:

WvW-One of the best class for zerg/GvG battle

Pretty sure if “Stand Your Ground!” did not exist, Guardian would not be around. It’s great to be held up by one utility.

Azoqu.8917:

Pecar.1236:

WvW-One of the best class for zerg/GvG battle

Pretty sure if “Stand Your Ground!” did not exist, Guardian would not be around. It’s great to be held up by one utility.

some times i have to run SiG and Hallowed Ground, and im still pulled or kb,, stability is easilly overwhelmed and removed.

Thief here. A lot of times, I won’t even join a group that doesn’t have a guardian. It’s an MVP class without a doubt.

Guardian > All other classes

Guardian was THE backbone of dungeon runs prior to HoT. Our utilities were absolutely necessary to survive some of the encounters. Wall of Reflectionw was necessary for Sorrow’s Furnace path 1, for example. And in AC Exp we had to place a Cleansing Flames down for the spider boss.

It’s become cheesed with the introduction of breakbars and power creep, but don’t forget it wasn’t always like that.

HoT made a huge mistake giving us the pvp spec. But I don’t think it was that bad.

Hicci.8761:

Atm guardian rotation is very easy but we’ll see how firebrand will change it. It’s said that tomes will function like engineer kits so they might bring more complexity to the class.

I am going to have to chime in here and point out the expansion is a ways away so having to wait that long for a class to change is just not worth it, what is to stop anyone from moving on and playing another game at that point? If a class is that behind it is an issue and there should be no reason to have to wait forever for a change.

Ryou.2398:

Hicci.8761:

Atm guardian rotation is very easy but we’ll see how firebrand will change it. It’s said that tomes will function like engineer kits so they might bring more complexity to the class.

I am going to have to chime in here and point out the expansion is a ways away so having to wait that long for a class to change is just not worth it, what is to stop anyone from moving on and playing another game at that point? If a class is that behind it is an issue and there should be no reason to have to wait forever for a change.

IF the class changes. They can just release a good spec for a bad class.

On the other hand, we had to deal with this kitten for 2 years, 4 months are nothing in comparison.