Guild Wars 2

Overall, including PvE and dungeons (mainly), PvP and WvW (as a damage dealer, not as a boring boon sharer) whats your take on Guardians as compared to say; elementalists and mesmers. Im a elementalist main and Im mostly into active support and damage, i dont like just giving boons and staying on the back doing near nothing.

Is it worth it to roll a guardian or should I amke a mesmer instead, or just keep playing my staff ele?

I have posted here because Im hoping to get some insight on this class from people that should be better on them.

tl;dr: Guardians as damage dealers and active supporters on all aspects of the game.

It’s fun. I usually run a might stacking DPS build in PvE and right now I’m working on various burning builds to see how viable that is. DPS guardians work fine. You can squeeze a lot of utility into them even while doing above average damage. They work well in WvW too – there’s a thread floating around with a video of a full berserker guardian bursting people down somewhere. Pretty cool.

Playing all three classes you mentioned (though ele and mesmer not too much), I prefer my guardian for almost anything. Damage dealer with active support works very well with this class and compared with the other two, imho it really shines in PvE. In WvW/PvP, it’s rather straightforward – mesmer and ele can be way more annoying than a guardian, but it’s not bad.

You will never “stand back and do nothing” with guardians. We are a melee class and we can build for epic damage if we want to but if you want pure damage then go warriors.

In pvp and wvw you wont be doing full damage build tho because you will die horribly without contributing to much. Guardians are a tanky class that can take a lot of direct damage while supporting the team. You have one of the best melee AOE weapons in game and they will give boons while damaging the enemy.

You CAN be anything with guardian but some options are just more viable than others.

I play Elementalist with PVT and full Berserker, Mesmer Berserker and Guardian PVT/Mix.

Guardians are borderline OP for casual PvE content (group events, event farming, mass mob farming, etc), I can take so many mobs at once and that’s fun.
Sure, I can too on my Elementalist but only when some specific CDs are up.
Guardian can tank and kill those with high sustain and high AoE damage, and the game is great fun for being a melee, it feels more challenging avoiding certain skills and just moving in general, makes you feel the “Action” part more than just kiting with a ranged profession.

The damage and effects aren’t as flashy as Elementalists, and you don’t have gimmicks like Mesmers, but being able to tank and damage through things is really fun.
The big protections are also great as support, not only for your group but for yourself as well, I’ve soloed many group content with a bunch of Wall of Reflections and Shield of the Avenger on heavy ranged fights, and even melee with the high HP regen Guardians can pull.

Dungeons I run either DpS (still being tanky though) and I choose between heavy DpS or a weaker self-DpS but more boon-ish build (lots of Mights, AoE regen, AoE def, projectile protection, etc) depending on the group composition.

PvP is the same, I play Berserker or Soldier regular AH build, and while on my Ele or Mesmer I have to rely heavily on boons, movements and control to avoid damage and survive, on my Guardian I just tank through all the damage and I outdamage others.
AH keeps a high regen, I (try to) avoid most big damage combos, and eventually I win.
I’ve gave a try on full DpS builds as well, they lack the sustain from AH but the damage combos are great and it feels like you’re playing a “burst them down” profession.
This, unfortunately doesn’t work on my Elementalist, who has to build for bunker/heal to survive, and while the damage is great it’s not the same as building for damage.
Mesmers can play a similar role as Guardians by between being tough or bursty as well and doesn’t impact much on how you do, since you’ll learn mostly how to avoid damage by making more clones, dodging, invulnerabilities and teleports/stealth (or HP regen in case of Guardians).

For WvW… I think my Guardian kinda sucks.
Well, it’s relative, it does have it’s role of being a heavy melee front-liner or support profession, but I really enjoy much much more bursting someone down with 7~14k Dragon Tooths while still playing safe in my zerg’s field than the infiltrating the enemy’s.
Also, Guardians sucks for escaping combat, even if you can rely on some teleport sequence such as Flashing Blade/Judge’s Intervention + something else, it’s still not a guaranteed escape and it’s not as good as other professions obviously.

Elementalists and Mesmers can survive any zerg onslaught if played cautiously, and it doesn’t diminish the role you play (you still get to do your damage/support by playing like this), whereas Guardian can’t. If you’re playing only support you’re not taking full advantage the professions’ strengths, if you try to go range you’re hardly going to make a difference, and if you go melee, where the profession really shines, you could be dead depending on the situation – and it’s not something you can control.
At least as Elementalist/Mesmer if things go wrong, you can always run/teleport/stealth away and continue to harass the enemy zerg or give it another try instead of just becoming a bag and WPing back.

When zergs clash, Guardians really shine being a hard to take down, heavy AoE profession, but I think any other profession can do the same damage and/or provide nearly the same the support but with a safer advantage.

Danicco.3568:

Well, it’s relative, it does have it’s role of being a heavy melee front-liner or support profession, but I really enjoy much much more bursting someone down with 7~14k Dragon Tooths while still playing safe in my zerg’s field than the infiltrating the enemy’s.

Well, it is indeed relative. If you fancy leading the zerg, or leading a guild group, or playing for the benefit of those around you as opposed to simply being “moar damage!1!!”, the Guardian is godly.

Built well it’s a potent 1v1. Built well it’s a potent 2v1. Built well it’s the perfect leading class.