Guild Wars 2

Hey. Quick back story for me. Still trying to figure out what profession I want to focus on for my first lvl 80. I have shortlisted guardian, Mesmer and elementalist.

So I went with the question of “what role do I want to play in a group?” And the answer is support, buffing, healing and conditions/damage to fill in gaps.

The one thing I don’t know is how decent is guardian ranged support? Can anyone help me out? (I can see how potent guardians are in melee range)

Edit : for PvE

Thanks!!

Anyone able to help?

Well, we have two ranged weapons. The first is the staff, which only has a range of 900. It has great AOE damage and some awesome support abilities. Because of that, I even bring it into some fights where I know I’m going to be in melee range. Our only “real” ranged weapon is the scepter, and while it has decent single-target damage, it lacks good support capabilites. Also, due to the speed of the orb, it feels very clunky. Fortunately, all of our offhands offer some usefulness at range.

As for our utilities, most of them are more dependent on being close to your allies than close to an enemy. If you’re more support-minded, those are the ones you’re more likely to bring anyway. The same is true of our class mechanic, virtues. Of course, if you’re in a party full of melee. . . .

So, to sum it up, a guardian is far from worthless at range. However, you’re correct that many of our best tools are melee. You will be doing yourself and your team a disservice if, as a guardian, you aren’t hopping into melee in certain situations. If you enjoy being at range whenever possible, then you’ll probably find a different class more satisfying, if only because of the wider selection of weapons.

i am definitely more a fan of being in melee range myself. though as mentioned, Guardians do shine, i won’t say best, but greatly when in reach of allies. so at times, if my allies are all going to be ranged, i’ll try and back off a bit, try to support from a distance as well and create more grounds where we benefit from one another the most.

i love the staff myself. especially the might stacking with Staff #4. i’ll roll back, offer boons to my allies, then rush back in. so this helps me keep the fight dynamic as well so i’m not always just standing still smashing away.

we’re not best at ranged, but we’re definitely not useless. even Tome of Wrath i have a lot of fun with. #3 boons your allies. #4 gives quickness for a couple secs to allies, and then is tart laying waste with the ranged moves.

DesertRose.2031:

Both ranged weapons of the Guardian are situational but are strong if used in the right situation.
The staff provides a little group-wide healing, group-wide Might, group-wide Swiftness and an AoE attack on its auto attacking, making this weapon very good for DE because you can support other players and easily tag a lot of foes for XP and loot and for running from A to B. With [Altruistic Healing] skill #3 and #4 also turn into great self-heals.
The Scepter is one of the highest DPS weapons of the Guardian however due to the slow projectile speed of its auto attack and the nature of its skill #2 it’s only strong against fairly immobile foes.

However it’s not feasible to use one of the ranged weapons as your standard weapon set, they are weapons to switch to if the situation calls for it.