Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing my guardian for a day or so, made it to level 13. But I just can’t get into it. I’ve played with all the guardian’s available weapons enough to unlock all their skills, and they all feel lackluster to me. I’ve been having trouble surviving difficult encounters, but I’m attributing that to lack of traits and decent utility skills. In general I just find the guardian rather boring in practice, though I do love the concept.

Does it get better? I’ve seen videos of guardians soloing dungeon bosses -something my ranger can’t do.

I would say leveling is kind of dull, but guardians don’t really shine solo. They are more a support profession and when in a group you can really see the class for what it really is.

When fully geared out a guardian is pretty much a walking fortress

I think guards are a little simpler than most of the other classes. They get a lot of passive buffs and abilities so there is much less micromanagement, but they are a very powerful class, especially in pve.

Your lack of survivability is definitely associated with your low level. It increases as you gain levels and are able to put points into your traits. At 60 when your able to finish the “toughness” tree, the one that grants you extra toughness per trait point, you can trait for a huge increase in your survivability through some passive healing on your meditations

teemo.3729:

I would say leveling is kind of dull, but guardians don’t really shine solo. They are more a support profession and when in a group you can really see the class for what it really is.

When fully geared out a guardian is pretty much a walking fortress

I would argue that guards are one of the strongest solo classes in the game in pve. In pvp they are fairly strong as well, but not as much so as in pve

I suppose I’m just too used to playing a ranger to get into a mostly melee class. The guardian feels like the polar opposite of the ranger. Decent melee with terrible ranged options.

Though, I regularly solo champions on my ranger. One of my favorites was the champion krait nimross in…I think it was either lornar’s pass or timberline falls.

hmm not sure if this paints a good enough picture – the Guardian can easily solo 5+ mobs, including at least 1 vet in Orr, even in full MF gear with the right set up and gear. : )) that being said, they shine even more in group settings.

highly survivable in dungeons, WvW (i don’t PvP so won’t comment there) and so most definitely in general PvE. perhaps can’t spec for as much burst dmg as other classes, by being survivable, you are by no means giving up significant amts of dmg at all though – still maintain high sustained dmg.

from my personal experience, i was deciding a Guard of War for my main. since the Guard was a bit different, i went with him. played until about 10, and then started to level a War, Engi and even Ranger. i felt similar to you. but i stuck with my Guard for a bit longer. and when i hit around 30, unlocking more utilities and traits, then i raelly started to learn more about the class and had a lot more fun. now i’m 80 and haven’t gone back to touch any of my other characters thus far.

if i kept playing them would i enjoy them more? sure. however, with the Guardian now, i am never bored and don’t feel the want and need to explore other classes.

so for now, stick with it! i felt i was dying more and not doing as much dmg early on. but now?D i laugh in the face of danger and hit them back twice as hard.

I really liked the 1h sword and torch + mace and focus weapon sets. I found all other combos slow and lacking.

@OP
I was in the same boat at launch. My Guardian seemed to die alot against the most simple mobs. After tinkering and talking to folks I found the right combo gear and skills to match my play style.

As the for the Guardian being boreing. Well we are a support class, so we tend to fight through our allies. Boon application doesn’t come with flashy animations, and sometimes our job can be a thankless one. Just remeber that every condtion you remove keeps your people up for longer. Every Might boon you give helps kill the enemy faster.

i know that this might not help at all…

if you have trouble with all lvl 13 guardian to beat simple mobs the problem is you.
if its just that you feel that the calss is boring.—- well thats you too but eeveryone is entitled to an opinion.

compared to mesmer or elementalis you should be able to mow your way through multiple mobs easily at lvl 13. in my opinion GS is close to OP in low levles compared to the named classes. sword shines against solos, mace is better against multiples and provides more defense. the only weapon that strongly benefits from traits is hammer imo. staff and scepter are kind of “meh” but i feel there is not one character where i love all the weapon and skills and i do not think it has to be that way.

i do agree though that it can be a little boring until you get to the “cooler” skillpoint abilities – which will make you even stronger.

guardian is one of the simpler classes that can be broken down to:

group spec: 0/0/30/30/0 with 10 points left to spec like you want to.
solo spec: 15/15/5/30/5 (or whatever you want this is my favorite sepc but there are a lot more options)

the group spec also works for solo play especially if you go against vets or you equip is not that great.

Guardian is amazing at everything (biased opinion). I love my Guardian. I can solo 10-15 mobs at once in Orr with ease and I rarely lose 1v1 fights in wvw and sometimes 1v2’s and call stall enemies for a long time. People tend to avoid a competent Guardian because they’re such a nuisance to kill. Leveling up is a bit dull but it starts to pick at around 30-40. Keep going at it.

EDIT: One thing Guardian is not amazing at is usually running away. Not like we need to a lot =p

I never felt underpowered or outmatched while leveling my Guardian. While it’s true that Guardians truly shine in group play, solo they are fantastic too and can be very hearty. Focus or Shield along with a shout or 2 and a couple dodges and you can shrug off just about every attack on you. Not to mention passive regen & aegis every 40 secs.

My 1st profession was a Ranger and it does take time adjusting your combat style from ranged to melee. But once you do I think you’ll love Guardian. They really have so many more options than Rangers as far as useful utility skills & weapons.

In my experience (I’m only 51 atm), the lower levels for Guardians are pretty tough. That’s because of the really low base HP. It does get better as you get higher though.

One thing that will help a whole lot is to make sure your gear is up to level. Buy stuff off the TP that fits your level. It’s fairly cheap and keeps your stats up to par.

Also, get a good scepter/focus or shield to compliment your main melee weapon. You can easily solo stuff with just kiting and scepter.

teemo.3729:

I would say leveling is kind of dull, but guardians don’t really shine solo.

Well, that’s just not true.

@OP, I recommend listening to the Fratellis while you play your Guardian. It helps. But in all seriousness, it gets better at later levels, trust me. You just have to power through the boring early levels. I actually enjoyed every step of leveling my Guardian, but that might just be because it was my first character and I hadn’t already been through the content.

All I can say is I played a Guardian first and I didn’t know how easy I had it. It is still my favorite profession over all granted I really haven’t tried Ele and War, but I will. I was completely spoiled on how well they heal compared to other classes. Maybe playing a Guardian isn’t OP’s style?

I can solo quite easily on my Guardian but I also have fun helping out my team. I think Guardian’s are one of the most diverse professions the one thing they are a little lackluster in is ranged combat, but hey you can’t and shouldn’t be good at everything.

Seeing as how OP played a Ranger first this may explain why they do not like like how a Guardian plays. My suggestion is to stick with it from my experience of trying out different ones is that no profession really begins to shine until you hit at least lvl 20.