Guardian or Warrior
You seem to have a bit of misinformation. Most weapons have a place in all three have modes, the exception being shield. Focus is definitely the most common off hand, but sword is definitely a good pairing. GS and Hammer each have their places, and staff is mostly used in wvw zerging, or for bunkers in PvP. One of the keys in knowing which weapon to take, is what kind of build you want to run. Hammer and Mace are great for symbol builds, as they can put them down quickly and repetitively. Sword and GS are great for movement as they have a teleport and leap respectively, scepter is your main range option, and focus and torch are your bursty off hands with an emphasis on aoe and single target/burning respectively. Shield has niche uses with its knock back and protection, and staff is useful for tagging a lot of enemies, swiftness, a burst of might, and the line of warding (utility as needed). Either your weapons will determine your ideal build, or your build will determine your ideal weapons.
Fishsticks
xx66x and full meditations are OK, although you can take 2 points from honor and put them elsewhere if you feel like you don’t need all that extra HP.
Wall of text incoming
In GW2 if you’re going to chose a class for the weapon’s looks you might have a bad time. Let me give you a quick comparison of the weapons you say you like aesthetically:
Hammer: Guardian It’s part of the Meta for Guadian when playing Fractals (end-game PvE content) and PvP, some builds use it for WvW. Warrior it sucks at PvE and some builds use it for PvP (Hambow).
Sword: Guardian Meta uses it for guardian cause of it’s auto attack. Rarely used in PvP because scepter is often prefered because of it’s immobilize and range. Warrior Great for covering long distances when used with Warhorn and Greatsword. Used as offhand in some solo builds or fights where it’s not important to take down defiance stacks. Used in the PvP Shoutbow Meta.
Shield: Guardian The worst choice you have in PvE because of Focus utilities and Torch’s #4 DPS. Used in some PvP builds (very rare because Focus is again more useful). Might be useful in some WvW situations (skill #5). Warrior Not very useful in PvE but Warrio’s Shield skills are way more useful than Guardians. PvP used in some bunking builds for it’s blocks and I think it has a place among some roaming WvW builds.
GreatSword: Guardian PvE Must have. PvP some Meditation builds use it but I prefer Hammer because of it’s soft CC. WvW used by a lot of builds. Warrior PvE A must have in most builds. PvP is rarely used and WvW it’s a weapon used for mobility (roaming builds).
Information taken from http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki
Now, if you’re new to the game test the weapons and play both classes to see what you like the better (you have 5 character slots!). GW2 is pretty different form most MMO’s and you might see that currently Warrior has more a support role than Guard (Phalanx Strength Build) even when Guardian is the class with most active defenses (blocks, blinds and reflects). Staff is only a good choice when it comes to WvW or PvP bunker builds. You might end up using Meta builds but make yourself your own opinion!
Enjoy the game, discover what you like and don’t rush. I wish I could have that feeling of exploring and discovering skills, weapons and classes alll over again.
Thank you all for the replies. My main concern has been, esp after getting back into doing dungeons, is that with guardian the weapons I would likely be using weapons I don’t like but are good, for instance having a ranged option for bosses that melee is just a horrible idea and choosing scepter over having a melee weapon.
That scenario is the main reason I’ve been considering warrior, as I like longbow and it seems like a good choice for a ranged option. While something like sword/focus, or scepter/focus or even using the staff on guardians might be good from a gameplay/numbers perspective I just don’t like the way those items look/feel thematically.
A greatsword with a Guardian can wreck house pretty hard, if you’re in a good mob.
As well, if I’m recalling correctly, the Guardian is able to use the longbow in HoT. That said, a scepter is a pretty good long ranged weapon, in certain situations, so I wouldn’t just knock it.
Aesthetically, things won’t make sense at time. I present you dagger dual-wielding Mages in this games.
One of the more preferred builds use Hammer/GS as a defensive setup. Guardians tend to have to switch up their skills and traits more readily vs another class whose selection is more static. Sure, you can find a build that works for most situations, but excelling in the class will require switching things up from time to time.
Don’t chose weapons for their looks. Chose them for their utility. I know some might look lame but you can change them once you get to 80 with a transmutation charge. Here are some focus and scepter skins
http://dulfy.net/2013/02/06/gw2-focus-skins-gallery/
http://dulfy.net/2012/12/28/gw2-scepter-skin-gallery/
Now, if you’re into dungeons know that you’re gonna be asked to melee most of mobs/bosses with both Guardian and Warrior (some exceptions are Imbued Shaman, Lupi -with Guard-, and Bloomhunger). Once again, my advice is to test each class and see what you like but LB is a subpar weapon for PvE with low damage.
Yeah, I mean I’ve looked into it and tbh most of the gameplay with those weapons looks fine (though staff just seems like this awkward magic shotgun) but I just don’t like the idea of this heavy armored warrior of justice and virtue who carries around a little magic wand (scepter).
It does seem that guardian has some nice options, and I could probably run ham/gs for alot of things, but I just worry that there will be alot of situations (ranked pvp or high lvl fractals/speed runs) where not having that ranged weapon equipped is gimping myself of the party.
You mentioned mostly being asked to do melee. So would say gs/hammer be a good option for fractals with maybe occasional fights needing scepter or?