After some intensive playing in WvW with my Guardian, I’m here to comment my findings.
Guardians suck for WvW.
I played extensively using Greatswords, Staff and Sword/Shield, arguably the best weapons for WvW. I run a build of Zeal 30, Valor 10, Honor 30, focused on Symbols enhancements (Healing and Larger) and Greatsword damage.
At first, I thought it was fun… well, it is still fun, but my Guardian started to lose it’s appeal to me when I started playing my Elementalist in WvW.
Both professions seems total opposites, one being the best in whatever role in WvW, the other being really subpar in almost everything.
Attacking locations with my Guardian is like watching people play while I heal around (this is why I use Staves), and sometimes drop a Symbol of Swiftness on top of towers. With my build, it deals 600~700 damage which is pretty lame, but it stacks with whatever else is damaging them.
The Orb hits for 1000~2000, but if I had to count… I’d say I hit 1 every 20 or 30.
Attacking through the gate with the Staff seems great, but even with all my Power build, I deal about 700~900 damage. It takes quite a time for people to start moving away from it.
Defending locations is a bit better, I stay on top of towers dropping Symbols in the mob, which doesn’t do much damage, but often I Empower myself and go down for a Symbol of Wrath + Whirling Wrath on the gate. When there’s an absurd amount of people, I can get 100% -> Down in a couple of seconds, so I stay away if I notice 50~75 or more at once.
Wall of Reflection in the gate is cool, but most damage to gates comes from Rams and Sieges, which the Wall doesn’t reflect. So it’s more for fun than anything else, because effectively speaking, it doesn’t do much.
Sanctuary near the Rams when it’s not big gates (Towers only) can help your location for 6~8 extra seconds, since people won’t be able to get near Rams. For a 96~120 sec CD… I don’t think it’s worth it, so I rarely use it.
Roaming around is the strong point of the Guardian. Fighting small groups of 5~15 is where you can shine. Being a juggernaut of damage and defense, you can break enemy lines and anyone who doesn’t move away from you.
This makes the enemy more dispersed, but I’m not sure if this is a good thing.
Chasing people is great since I use Judge’s Intervention and either Flashing Blade for a 1800 gap closer, or I try to preempt-block their escape route with Line of Warding. It’s simply dropping the line, swapping weapons and rushing towards them, and they’ll usually try to flee.
Escaping mobs is… complicated. With no extra movement or anything, if I’m being chased by a zerg and I am in combat, chances I’ll die are pretty high. Shelter and Renewed Focus can grant me some great invulnerable times, but they’re just chasing me at a higher speed so I can’t do much if I can’t get to safety.
The exception being if I can target an enemy far ahead (usually monsters) and double teleport away.
[Continued in the next post]