Guild Wars 2

Hello Guardians,

I am just looking for a bit of advice. I main a Mesmer and I have been trying to decide on which class I want as my second.

I played a Guardian for a little while and then I just kind of stopped. I tried out an elementalist as my but it didn’t really seem to fit my style.

I currently have my Guardian up to level 40 and I had been thinking about getting him going.

Which are the best weapons and skills to be able to just smash through the leveling content?

Also a future question as to how Guardians at max level play. I understand they have a lot of support and defense built into them, but does a Guardian also have the option of building and gearing more offensive? Is it viable to build and play a Guardian who is more built around high damage?

Indeed it can, the Greatsword does well at this along with Zerker armor. There are some pretty offensive builds out there and they can do quite well. You will both deal high damage and still have a moderately high survivability this way. With the death of the trinity this became possible.

For leveling, I highly recommend learning, knowing, and using shouts. Having multiple boons on you at all times is immensely helpful. For weapons, the Greatsword is pretty much the one most Guardians swear by. High damage, a bit of CC, mobility, and the great Retaliation buff, makes solo’ing stuff very easy, even into Orr.

Speaking of Orr, once you hit the Orrian areas, you’re really going to want to start paying attention to exactly what is on your gear. Guardians are naturally tough, but not naturally gods. With the amount of CC Risen have, some areas can be a pain. I suggest you invest a bit into gear with vitality and toughness, since Guardians have one of the lowest base health pools in the game. The GW2 Codex has great builds on hand for leveling, and can give you a general idea of how to build your Guardian.

As for max level play, there’s really not to much of a difference, depending on how you spend your traits. For instance, my build, once I unlocked Altruistic Healing, turned into an absolute tank. The synergy between the different traits is what makes Guardians so versatile compared to other classes. You can really use almost anything and be slightly viable.

That said, when it comes to gearing up offensively, I personally like to still have survivability. Some people like using 100% Zerkers gear and weapons, with 10-20/30/30/0/10 (depending if they picked up Greatsword Damage increase 5% in the Zeal line). While it gives you tremendous damage, you’re pretty fragile. Greatswords and swords have access to some nice multi attack abilities, so this trait setup works well.

When it comes to viability, it’s really about what you want to do. Do you want to tank? Then try to have ~17K HP once you’re geared, to survive conditions, which is the bane of Guardians. Want to be full support? Most Guardians will go 0/0/30/30/10, with a staff, and the support abilities plus healing are amazing. Guardians are kind of the jack of trades with the exception of consistant long range damage. Look up some builds, and see which one’s suit you best.

Conditions are the bane of guardians? You’ll have to explain that one to me. Even jus a set of soldier runes that removes conditions on shouts should cover it nicely.