Guild Wars 2

Made a Guardian this past week, up to level 43 now. Very happy with the class, but experiencing a little confusion about what the optimal choice of “tanking” weapon set would be.

My first thought was mace/shield. The mace has exceeded expectations, but the shield has disappointed. It seems like mace/focus is the superior choice for personal survivability and that’s the bottom line I’d like to keep in mind.

Flipping back a few pages through the class forum here, I’m also seeing hammer recommended as a strong defensive weapon… apparently because of the protection buff on the tail end of its autoattack? Is it really comparable to mace/focus? Better? Worse?

Thanks in advance to anyone who answers.

100% protection uptime and lots of cc. personal preference imo.

I really like the mace/focus. Hammer is to slow for me. The healing on the maces 3rd hit is really nice and the block on the focus is one of the best 5’s in the game.

Mace/Focus is probably the best. Two blocks, a lot of heals, and a blind.

It depends on what you’re going for. Personally I prefer the hammer since it’s pretty much a permanent 33% damage reduction. Against many bosses this damage reduction isn’t as effective as the blocks from mace/focus but it still gets the job done. It’s really up to you. There will be cases where you cannot block because of say too many attacks. I suggest you have “Hold the line” and/or “Save Yourselves” since they work through most crowd control if you want to help mitigate damage (and you cannot block, or reapply the symbol of protection while cced :p).

Also remember as long as you can attack with the hammer, you will have protection on you. This is great against multiple opponents whereas mace/focus is better against relatively few opponents.

The answer is mostly of preference though. I like and roll both, though I prefer hammer and usually leave mace/focus in my inventory and have a staff in case I need to be ranged, or want a swiftness buff.

I assume you are talking about PvE. In my opinion in PvE it’s best not to “tank” in this game. At least not in the traditional sense of facetanking.

That being said, I prefer using hammer for the great protection buff, ok damage, and combo blast finishers it brings. People should not in my opinion underestimate the hammer #2 finisher. Also I think that damage mitigation from protection buff is superior to mace healing.

As I see it, my role on the battlefield is dishing out as much damage as possible and buffing allies without dieing. Not soaking up all of the avoidable damage and tanking in the traditional sense.

For leveling purposes I would suggest GS so you can gather a mob with #5 and then spin to win But, again, it all depends on what you want to do. Just my 2 cents.

All of the answers have been helpful. Much appreciated.

Bynaar, what you described is the conclusion I’m coming to as well. They’re both pretty great, and that’s part of what makes the choice so difficult. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by just how durable I am with proper use of the hammer.

Libertine, I do try to avoid as much damage as I can. I know I’ll never be a true tank or healer in the trinity sense, but I did roll guardian to protect people. Finding the optimal balance between damage output, utility, and survivability will probably take a long time (and vary according to situation), and I’m okay with that, I just know that if I have to pick one of the three as a starting point, I prefer survivability.

I did try the greatsword thing for a zone or two… I can see why it’s a popular weapon, but it’s not my style.

Apostate.3721:

Libertine, I do try to avoid as much damage as I can. I know I’ll never be a true tank or healer in the trinity sense, but I did roll guardian to protect people. Finding the optimal balance between damage output, utility, and survivability will probably take a long time (and vary according to situation), and I’m okay with that, I just know that if I have to pick one of the three as a starting point, I prefer survivability.

I didn’t mean to imply that you didn’t dodge or block or anything, was speaking about it generally

It sounds like you have a pretty solid thing going on. Starting with high survivability is a good tactic. I am myself just now trying to get more damage out of my build by changing some of my armor to berserker’s pieces. Work in progress

Libertine.1047:

Apostate.3721:

Libertine, I do try to avoid as much damage as I can. I know I’ll never be a true tank or healer in the trinity sense, but I did roll guardian to protect people. Finding the optimal balance between damage output, utility, and survivability will probably take a long time (and vary according to situation), and I’m okay with that, I just know that if I have to pick one of the three as a starting point, I prefer survivability.

I didn’t mean to imply that you didn’t dodge or block or anything, was speaking about it generally

It sounds like you have a pretty solid thing going on. Starting with high survivability is a good tactic. I am myself just now trying to get more damage out of my build by changing some of my armor to berserker’s pieces. Work in progress

I’m not offended at all, I just didn’t want to give the impression that I’m trying to make the class into something it’s not. I mean… I was, for a bit, but I learned from some of my more painful mistakes in that regard.

I’m definitely coming around to the idea of pushing my offense more. I’m only 50 now, but I’m begining to appreciate the fact that all the defense in the world won’t keep me alive if my damage output is pathetic.