Guild Wars 2

After several years playing PvP in MMOs I’ve learned the value of CC and survivability skills. I want a character able to CC enemies and survive in the battle, without being a failure at 1×1 fights.
I know Guardians are great supporters but here is what I want to know about them:

1 – How well can they go against other classes in 1×1 fights? Sometimes I roam in WvW looking after caravans, alone (please don’t judge this playstyle, that’s not the point).

2 – Are 2 handed weapons build viable?

3 – Is the lack of HP when compared with Warriors, an issue for survival? I’m asking this, becouse Warrior was my first class and I’ve noticed that.(Don’t rage, please. I don’t want this to become a Guardian x Warrior rage thread).

4 – How is the DPS output?

5 – Am I wrong for not finding Guardian’s playstyle facerolling? I read a lot that it’s a very easy to play class, but I feel a bit lost with so many support skills at my disposal (currently weaing mace+shiled/staff).

Thank you very much. A nice weekend to you all.

Will try my best to answer this:

1 – Depends. Since we got low starting health we do suffer alot from Condition Damage so your best bet is packing Conditions Removal Traits (Shouts or Meditations), i find sometimes difficult overcoming CC arsenal from various classes also but you got some wayout of that also (Intervention for example). My experience in 1 vs 1 is average (i might be a bad player after all xD) but the most i fight is 1v2-3 anyway.

2 – Fotm is GS/Staff so i’d say yes. I prefer Hammer/Staff tho.

3 – I run around with 16,5K hps and i find myself at a good spot between High Vitality and no Dmg and No Vitality and Dps Monster.

4 – Not as Warrior, Guardian can dish out good Dps with not so high spikes.

5 – I won’t comment on this. I don’t agree anyway.

i play WvW and dont Spvp, so take my comments as that

kinda hard to get same answers to your question though since we play different builds, gear differently etc. So the experience could be quite different

FYI. I run a full offense build in WvW with 20/25/25/0/0 traits and zerker evrything
Yes its a no vitality DPS monster

1. Depends if you count lowbie kills too
if you count all the scaled up lowbies i easily kill. id say 90% win rate
80s only i could still prob boast of 70-80% win rate
prob depends on the general quality of your opponents though /shrugs
Id say the only class which i fear to face 1 on 1 is a mesmer…………..

2. Id say its very viable. Greatsword guardians there everywhere

3. I run with 11k hp. Warriors easily have twice as much as me.
Doesnt stop me from killing them 1 on 1 though. Id say not an issue
Ive also run more tanky 0/0/30/30/10 builds before. Those make you quite tanky even with low hp pool

4. If you run a burst build like mine its DPS is very high. I mean it. Try it out yourself.
Decent DPS for your normal 0/0/30/30/10 builds.

5. Whether something is faceroll or not is very subjective. No comment.

1: If you’re playing a bunker Guardian, you should be able to survive indefinitely in a 1v1 (and likely 2v1) situation so long as you use your skills appropriately and don’t blow your cooldowns too quickly. However, you may not be able to actually kill your attacker, because fully defensive Guardian builds have very low damage output. With a more aggressive build, you lose your immortal status, but your combination of sustained damage and mitigation will still win you most 1v1’s. Spirit Weapon builds, although not common in higher level play, are some of the most powerful 1v1 duelists in the game.

2: Absolutely. The Honor line is your best friend when making a build that uses a combination of the Staff, GS, and Hammer, since besides the obvious 2-Handed Mastery, it contains traits for Shouts and Symbols that are natural complements to these weapons’ playstyles. In general, the GS is about offense, the Hammer’s about control, and the Staff is about support, so your role on the team will be determined by what combination of these you take. There’s not really a wrong combination, so use whatever suits your fancy.

3: Not at all. Guardians have a lot more active mitigation than warriors do, which helps make up for the difference in HP. Blocks, blinds, vigor, access to protection, various interrupts/CC, bubbles, and so on will help stretch your HP pool out considerably, especially in a defensive build. In general, you’re playing dangerously if you have less than 16k health, though.

4: In a bunker build, it’s crap. Offensive builds, like Gahn said, don’t have much spike damage, but generally rely on high sustained output. Your GS, 1h Sword and Scepter are your best candidates for a DPS role. Our Power line, Zeal, is garbage, so most people taking this route spec heavily into Radiance and Valor. The remaining points either go into Zeal for the Fiery Wrath trait, or Honor/Virtues for extra defense and support. You can also spec to 25/30 in Honor to pick up the Elusive Power trait, which will give you a DPS buff alongside the extra HP/healing/whatever else from the Honor line.

5: This is sort of a tough question to answer, because knowledge of how to use your skills is really just something that comes with experience. It’s true that the Guardian is generally considered one of the easier professions, but that’s mostly because as a bunker, you’ve got so many different ways to survive and mitigate damage that it can be hard to screw up at your job, which is just a matter of holding the point you’re on. I think fewer people would agree that the roles of support Guardian and offensive Guardian are “faceroll” in the same way as the bunker style. I’ve recently been experimenting with different kinds of offensive Guardian, and I’ve found quite a bit more nuance and skill required for playing them effectively, since you’re not immortal in the same way that the bunker build is. You’re also responsible for killing opponents efficiently in 1v1 while holding out for a long time/killing in 1v2 situations, which can be tough with our limited spike damage. On the support end, skill is absolutely required, because if you’re just firing everything off on cooldown, you’re going to run dry quickly and be useless if your opponent reclaims the advantage. As I said up above, learning how to use your support skills is really just a matter of experience and situational awareness. I wish I could give you more specific advice, but there are too many different kinds of support and situations to really cover it here. Just keep playing, and it’ll eventually come to you.

Thank you for your advices, guys. They really helped me to understand how this calss works. I must say I’m impressed that guardians can output so much DPS. That’s great, becouse I have a great variety of roles to pick.