Guild Wars 2

I have been considering making my 1st guardian, yet there is something I would like to have cleared up for me. Every time I have an even 1v1 with a guardian (even as in no one getting jumped while at partial heath) I win handily in both PvP and WvW easily over 90% of the time. This is definitely not the case when I face other professions (Thieves and engies especially), and it has come to the point that a guardian without a buddy looks like easy prey to me in competitive. Now, I’ve seen the magnitude of what guards can do in a zerg, a dungeon or other group PvE, so I definitely don’t see them as underpowered.
So, is there a build and/or play style that gives guards strong 1v1 power, or is that just not an approach they can take to competitive? Or are they actually strong in 1v1 and I’ve just encountered all the sorry ones in all my months of play? I’m just looking for the right mentality to take to using this profession in competitive.
(I’ve been playing necro, if that helps.)

meditation gaurds can do great in 1v1.

however it also depends on players skill both builds and other factors.

Yes, if you build for dueling. An AH support guard will lose almost every time but a medi or spirit weapon will do much better.

They absolutely can. Just know there really isn’t any auto-win build. While meditation is probably the best way to go, it will still require a lot of practice and experience fighting different builds.

Practise will take you far. These days you need to get the mobility perfect, depending on the matchup. Knowing your opponents capabilities, when to dodge, when to block and when to push is very important. Guardians have more blocks than most, but they must still be used wisely.
I would say just get a solid build and fight away.

I tend to play Support builds (mostly build around Altruistic Healing) and that means that 1v1 is pretty hard. The build just isn’t made for doing damage, and in 1v1 damage tends to win out.

But depending on the other player’s skill and build, I can win a lot of the time, or at least drag out the fight long enough that other play gives up or reinforcements arrive. Squishier players I can solo with some ease, if they’re not too skilled.

The thing you need to understand about defensive Guardians is that they don’t play to win. They play to not lose.

Sadly we are bound to med build and very low wep choices ,support only works in well organized pvp teams solo your just a +5/10 points for them
current changes in 1v1 pvp
guard/ele 0-1(24 skills/each heals for them us 10 long colld)
guard/thief 1-1 (if there clumsyif iff they are hit and hide 0-1)
guard/war 1-0 (since last update we can fight them on equal ground)
guard/necro 1-1(considering a 3 stages of life each popping one after another long term 0-1)
guard/engy 1-1(if they are condi hard time chances )
guard/rangers 1-3(yes 3 temporal we shall see on the next update maybe the devs will increase ore chances vs them )

the above is not really right in all cases.
guard vs:
ele – you should never win
thief – you should almost always win
war – you should win mostly
necro – you should almost always win
engi – if he’s equally skilled or better you will lose, otherwise should win
ranger – vs condi u lose, vs power u win

Where do you guys come up with this stuff??

WvW is much different than PvP for starters. I have a 50% win rate on my Offensive Guardian in PvP – we just dont have the base skills as someone pointed out. A guardian in PvP is most likely a bunker for point control.

I have a 80% win rate against all classes in WvW and I run an offensive power build (Not Medi). That is against Gold, Silver and Bronze level players so I am not fighting scrubs all the time.

Guard is the challenging class in the game because it will test your patience with being a support person or test your will with being a damage class.

Svenghali.4716:

Where do you guys come up with this stuff??

WvW is much different than PvP for starters. I have a 50% win rate on my Offensive Guardian in PvP – we just dont have the base skills as someone pointed out. A guardian in PvP is most likely a bunker for point control.

I have a 80% win rate against all classes in WvW and I run an offensive power build (Not Medi). That is against Gold, Silver and Bronze level players so I am not fighting scrubs all the time.

Guard is the challenging class in the game because it will test your patience with being a support person or test your will with being a damage class.

yet some builds melt bunkers in seconds?
Patience of a Paragon :P.

Svenghali.4716:

Where do you guys come up with this stuff??

WvW is much different than PvP for starters. I have a 50% win rate on my Offensive Guardian in PvP – we just dont have the base skills as someone pointed out. A guardian in PvP is most likely a bunker for point control.

I have a 80% win rate against all classes in WvW and I run an offensive power build (Not Medi). That is against Gold, Silver and Bronze level players so I am not fighting scrubs all the time.

Guard is the challenging class in the game because it will test your patience with being a support person or test your will with being a damage class.

its true guards are stronger in wvw due to having the same amount of defense but much higher offensive stats, but you should still win the vast majority of 1v1 (everything but ele and some engis) as a guardian in spvp..

Meditation guard is probably one of the strongest 1v1 specs in the game. If you want to try it out in PvP, I’d recommend this build:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Meditation_DPS_Variant

Also has a usage part to it.

Svenghali.4716:

Where do you guys come up with this stuff??

WvW is much different than PvP for starters. I have a 50% win rate on my Offensive Guardian in PvP – we just dont have the base skills as someone pointed out. A guardian in PvP is most likely a bunker for point control.

I have a 80% win rate against all classes in WvW and I run an offensive power build (Not Medi). That is against Gold, Silver and Bronze level players so I am not fighting scrubs all the time.

Guard is the challenging class in the game because it will test your patience with being a support person or test your will with being a damage class.

Even Hotjoin PvPers are much better than most “Gold” level WvW players. Source: R109 WvW from roaming.

Elitist.8701:

Even Hotjoin PvPers are much better than most “Gold” level WvW players. Source: R109 WvW from roaming.

Rank 109 in WvW is nothing. What server are you on where you can make such claims?

PvP sure you can win.

WvW if you are up against a ranged class and a competent player, no, no chance in hell you can win, you will get kited to death all day long.

PvP wise you should only worry about AMAZING necros/engies or condi ranger if you are not aware on how to use condi cleanses appropriately/deal with their kiting. DPS guard is often called skilless due to how powerful a good one can be in 1v1’ing nearly everything.

Chaotic.9742:

PvP wise you should only worry about AMAZING necros/engies or condi ranger if you are not aware on how to use condi cleanses appropriately/deal with their kiting. DPS guard is often called skilless due to how powerful a good one can be in 1v1’ing nearly everything.

they wont lose to necros lol

Booms.2594:

Chaotic.9742:

PvP wise you should only worry about AMAZING necros/engies or condi ranger if you are not aware on how to use condi cleanses appropriately/deal with their kiting. DPS guard is often called skilless due to how powerful a good one can be in 1v1’ing nearly everything.

they wont lose to necros lol

hence the AMAZING in bold for emphasis on them being AMAZING

Chaotic.9742:

Booms.2594:

Chaotic.9742:

PvP wise you should only worry about AMAZING necros/engies or condi ranger if you are not aware on how to use condi cleanses appropriately/deal with their kiting. DPS guard is often called skilless due to how powerful a good one can be in 1v1’ing nearly everything.

they wont lose to necros lol

hence the AMAZING in bold for emphasis on them being AMAZING

no you shouldnt lose to noscoc or firebird or anybody.

Booms.2594:

Chaotic.9742:

PvP wise you should only worry about AMAZING necros/engies or condi ranger if you are not aware on how to use condi cleanses appropriately/deal with their kiting. DPS guard is often called skilless due to how powerful a good one can be in 1v1’ing nearly everything.

they wont lose to necros lol

A good power necro is a very tough matchup for a meditation guardian, because proper use of fear and death shroud makes them very resilient to bursts of damage.

Black Box.9312:

Booms.2594:

Chaotic.9742:

PvP wise you should only worry about AMAZING necros/engies or condi ranger if you are not aware on how to use condi cleanses appropriately/deal with their kiting. DPS guard is often called skilless due to how powerful a good one can be in 1v1’ing nearly everything.

they wont lose to necros lol

A good power necro is a very tough matchup for a meditation guardian, because proper use of fear and death shroud makes them very resilient to bursts of damage.

blocks and blinds make it very hard for a necro to land its hard hitting plague blasts and 4 differnt skills that can remove fear make it hard to rely on fear

Booms.2594:

Black Box.9312:

Booms.2594:

Chaotic.9742:

PvP wise you should only worry about AMAZING necros/engies or condi ranger if you are not aware on how to use condi cleanses appropriately/deal with their kiting. DPS guard is often called skilless due to how powerful a good one can be in 1v1’ing nearly everything.

they wont lose to necros lol

A good power necro is a very tough matchup for a meditation guardian, because proper use of fear and death shroud makes them very resilient to bursts of damage.

blocks and blinds make it very hard for a necro to land its hard hitting plague blasts and 4 differnt skills that can remove fear make it hard to rely on fear

Owning a power Vampire necro, warhorn 5 alone craps of SoW 3 hit blocks, blinds, include dagger AA and the only thing I have to worry about is shelter, other than that i can safely soft CC guardians with cripple, immobilizes and fear. Easily switching between DS for utility of a damage soak, and CC.

Lucentfir.7430:

Booms.2594:

Black Box.9312:

Booms.2594:

Chaotic.9742:

PvP wise you should only worry about AMAZING necros/engies or condi ranger if you are not aware on how to use condi cleanses appropriately/deal with their kiting. DPS guard is often called skilless due to how powerful a good one can be in 1v1’ing nearly everything.

they wont lose to necros lol

A good power necro is a very tough matchup for a meditation guardian, because proper use of fear and death shroud makes them very resilient to bursts of damage.

blocks and blinds make it very hard for a necro to land its hard hitting plague blasts and 4 differnt skills that can remove fear make it hard to rely on fear

Owning a power Vampire necro, warhorn 5 alone craps of SoW 3 hit blocks, blinds, include dagger AA and the only thing I have to worry about is shelter, other than that i can safely soft CC guardians with cripple, immobilizes and fear. Easily switching between DS for utility of a damage soak, and CC.

well if you can beat me on that necro ill give you 100g

Booms.2594:

Lucentfir.7430:

Booms.2594:

Black Box.9312:

Booms.2594:

Chaotic.9742:

PvP wise you should only worry about AMAZING necros/engies or condi ranger if you are not aware on how to use condi cleanses appropriately/deal with their kiting. DPS guard is often called skilless due to how powerful a good one can be in 1v1’ing nearly everything.

they wont lose to necros lol

A good power necro is a very tough matchup for a meditation guardian, because proper use of fear and death shroud makes them very resilient to bursts of damage.

blocks and blinds make it very hard for a necro to land its hard hitting plague blasts and 4 differnt skills that can remove fear make it hard to rely on fear

Owning a power Vampire necro, warhorn 5 alone craps of SoW 3 hit blocks, blinds, include dagger AA and the only thing I have to worry about is shelter, other than that i can safely soft CC guardians with cripple, immobilizes and fear. Easily switching between DS for utility of a damage soak, and CC.

well if you can beat me on that necro ill give you 100g

Well if you want to duel I’d be up for it. I’m not wagering anything though.