Guild Wars 2

Hi there, thanks for stopping by.

I mostly dislike the ranged weapon choices on the guardian. One of the reasons i rolled guardian was to do a inner challenge of accomplish running dungeons in full melee. Yes, even the situations where is almost mandatory to go ranged.
For now i realized the synergy of the Mace/Focus due to 2 abilities granting block, one blind (pratically the same result) and one regen generator, that plus shelter on the heal.

On the second weapon set i was thinking sword and shield specially for the the blind and the knockback to cope a situation with two many smaller adds, although the other weapon set is really the backbone which i hope can make this attempt work.

I wonder though if anyone attempted this, with guardian or other profession, mainly for the challenge of being able to hold it at melee range against almost impossible odds.

I’m still lvl20, so i’m still a bit far from having the opportunity to try this, giving that little to no one is doing story mode, thus making me 15 lvl down the road.

This post serves to feel the room temperature and get a feedback of how delusional i might be to even daydream about this…

Thank you in advance for any lines you wish to drop.

Some bosses you just can’t melee at all, and trying to is just a detriment to the rest of your team.

But a lot of bosses can be. I run GS and sword/focus quite often, which is fine most of the time.

You WILL need to stay very mobile ( slotting for energy recovery is useful ) – and learn to watch out for some skills or attack patterns which can basically one-shot you.

Finally don’t be afraid to keep switching weapons in between bosses. There are definitely some bosses which have to be fought at range, so the simplest solution is to spend a few seconds between each boss equipping different weapons, changing utilities and if necessary tweaking traits. ( if you didn’t know you can change major traits you have unlocked whenever you like )

After a few runs in each dungeon you will learn what works best for you and your team.

Tarsius is right. It’s good to switch things up between fights. There are some bosses where it’s necessary to use ranged weapons, and even a few where it’s better to stay in melee range.

Yes you almost need to run with some sort of ranged weapon scepter gives you the most range and for some bosses you HAVE to range if you don’t you completely doom your group to death. I do and have however run completely with GS and sword/shield combo for most dungeons until requiring ranged combat, then I go GS and scepter/shield. Don’t need to specialize in any ranged combat but be prepared to use it from time to time.

I melee 99% of everything and have 0 problems, there is a few times you’ll need to whip out a scepter, but just keep a good one in your bag at all times and you’ll have no problems.

I never really used ranged weapons on the guardian. The Staff doesn’t really count and the Scepter is kind of meh. The hammer is still useful at a range because it is good for holding an enemy at a distance in one spot as well as pushing them back.

I see no point in using a weapon that is largely useless with my build and armor setup if its more of a pain in the kitten to switch.

I don’t really see how a Guardian weapon would ever not work with any of its traits or gear. All of the Guardian’s arsenal in general scales well with power and there are very few weapons that need traits to function well. Hammer is the only exception as having two-handed mastery greatly benefits the flow of combat with it.

I run primarily with Hammer/Staff with Greatsword, Scepter and Shield in bags, haven’t found the need to carry anything else. There simply are some fights where you’re screwing your team if you’re trying to melee. Lupus for a few phases for example. Also, on a fight with less melee opportunities, what are you going to do, just stand there? That’s wasted time doing no damage output.

I don’t have a problem meleeing full time even on the more punishing encounters like Alpha (which largely tests your dodge timing is all), but to never just have a scepter back up as much as you would dislike it is kittening yourself. After all, you can switch equipment, utilities and what not out of combat for good reason.

Can you cite me an instance of an enemy you would never approach with a melee weapon? I honestly can’t think of any.

Arah Lupicus phase 1 and sometimes phase 2. If you melee him phase 1, you’re going to feed him grubs and possibly get group kicked. Your only choice for here is to melee his adds but under no circumstances should you ever approach lupicus in phase 1 with a melee weapon.

Phase 2 if he’s fixated on you for his charge (he usually picks 1 target), being in melee range makes it harder to dodge. He also throws random bolts out that has a trajectory and hits pretty hard even if you have toughness, again bigger window to dodge when you’re ranged. Last but not least his massive AoE circles that actually don’t really show where the bolts are going. You can’t follow the circles for these but rather you have to watch the bolts, you can very well be hit by one zig-zagging even outside a red circle. Again, more distance between you and lupus, the easier to manage. Even IF you’re a kittenongst mere mortals with your dodge reactions and infinite dodge bar and lupus is charging someone else on your team. Having to gap close in between said AoE and his charges means a lot of downtime for melee damage. Phase 3 is the only one where you can reasonably melee him.

Twilight Arbor F/U Nightmare Tree. If you want to melee him, you’re going to pull more aggro on spiders that your group won’t appreciate having to deal with. His shockwaves after all, already spawn them the first few times. Your skill set as a Guardian also means you should be protecting your group (probably hanging out back) with reflection, and projectile absorption. You should have a melee weapon to grind down those spiders but trying to melee the tree itself is more trouble than its worth.

I dont run Arah, because I dont know anyone that runs it and putting a group together is a pain in the kitten and Twilight Arbor is just a kitteny dungeon, not pertaining to any non-melee-able bosses.

I’m going to have to say that 99% of the time I never feel pressured to use a ranged weapon. I carry a scepter for the off chance I might need one, but its never been a real issue.

Guardians who don’t even bother swap to their staff is missing a lot of good.

I’m not saying don’t use alternative weapons. I also feel that that ranged weapon(s) (because lets be serious we only get a scepter staff has one slightly ranged offensive skill thats more focused on AoE) we get feel visually “un-impactful”.

When my dude leaps through the air with his hammer and slams the ground theres a blast and a visceral feel to that animation. When my dude starts lobbing little blue balls that move really slowly through the air… I don’t feel like I’m doing anything. Also Smite should look like a Arcane Seal that sprays light out of the ground in a spotlight manner so that it is both more interesting to see and easier to tell where the kitten thing is. Its so easy to lose that stupid thing in combat.

Outside of high level fractals and Lupi, you can pretty much melee all dungeons.

I’ve done mostly melee (some parts are nearly impossible melee), and mace/focus and hammer have done me best. I main hammer, then when I see a big attack coming, or if I need something to clutch protect, I switch to mace/focus for four potential blocks and the repeated blind. Works wonders while cycling between autoattacking on the hammer for constant protection and some clutch damage mitigation, all in between waiting for heals to come off cooldown.