Guild Wars 2

I usually like to roam, but sometimes I like participating in zergs…

1. How are Guardians in Roaming and 1v1?

2. What’s a Guardians role in a zerg? Are Guardians able to “Tag” enemy players well for badges in a huge zerg?

1. They’re below average. But it’s probably because if you roam, you’ll only find Mesmers and Thieves roaming and owning you senselessly.

You sometimes find a Warrior, Elementalist or Guardian around and you can enjoy a good 1v1. But most of the time, you’ll be killing clones and getting killed by clones, or be in permanent combat because there’s a perma-stealth thief around who you’re engaged in combat with.

For roaming in WvW, Thieves/Mesmers and maybe Elementalists are unmatched, and if you fight any of these professions on the hand of a skilled player, you’re not going to win.

2. Yes, Staff is awesome for this, and if you think you can survive, teleporting in the middle of the zerg, dropping a Mighty Blow / Whirling Wrath and running back with Shelter/Renewed Focus/Dodges also work well.

You can do anything, but these two I think are the most suitable for Guardians and the ones the profession really excel at.

- Melee DpS: If you’re in a group who’s always going for the clash, it’s one of the best roles you can get. Being really resistant and able to deal high AoE damage, Guardians are awesome in melee combat.
- Support: Pick Staff and any other weapon (Mace/Shield for extra healing) and you can pump up Might, Heals, Swiftness, Wards, while still DpSing.
Utilities can provide excellent projectile protection (Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger) as well, and those are great for zergs.

1. They can be pretty strong if your in a roaming group. Roaming alone, you probably don’t want to be on a guardian.

2. One of the most important components to a zerg.

Danicco’s reply is comprehensive and echos my sentiments.

I don’t play wvw often and am by no means “good” at it, but when I do play it I mostly roam solo, or latch onto a small group. I don’t particularly enjoy the craziness of zergs.

Most of my encounters end up with me face down… But once in a while I get into a 1-on-1 with another Guardian, and it is a real battle of wits and wills, and drags on and on. It’s great, and makes up for all the times I just died in four seconds in a sea of conditions.

1. I roam on my guardian quite often with mixed results. The Guardian has excellent sustained combat abilities, and some of the best consistent self-healing. The main problem I find is that they have almost no way of keeping damage on a target that is trying to disengage with everything they have. Once a guardian establishes an advantage, most classes will be able to disengage before the guardian can finish them. Likewise if the Guardian wants to disengage more than likely they won’t be able to. Kiting kills you.

2. Guardians are amazing in large scale fights. As stated, Staff is great for a wide angle tagging attack, and adds great support to groups. The ability to place persistent walls breaks up enemy groups and guardians are definitely one of the most commonly seen shock troopers, leading charges deep into enemy formations. Likewise a larger scale combat eliminates some of your roaming weak spots: there are many more stragglers you can catch and a lot more support from your side to stop runners from trying to get away

1. This is a side effect of the build I run (Boonway), but guardians can be amazing solo roamers. The build I run provides me access to permanent swiftness, 9 condition removals, tons of blocks/blinds, and something akin to complete immunity to control effects. Between all this, I cannot be kited except by extremely skilled players and people that are specifically built for teleporting around (which tends to cripple their damage output). I can solo supply camps easily, and curbstomp 9 out of 10 thieves that attack me (and chances are the 10th one will fight to a draw). Highly skilled mesmers still give me serious trouble, but other than that, I don’t have any qualms about engaging any fight I see.

2. I don’t have much experience zerging—my build is optimized for solo roaming, so I don’t fare as well in a zerg as a build with higher durability might. Even with my build, though, Guardian does just fine with the staff. It has a huge cone autoattack that does enough damage to tag enemies, if not exactly count as a serious threat. Plus, projectile reflection/absorption is amazing in zerg fights, and we have that in spades, backed up with AoE healing and retaliation.

Thank you for answering guys

Kharel Arhew.1437:

1. This is a side effect of the build I run (Boonway), but guardians can be amazing solo roamers. The build I run provides me access to permanent swiftness, 9 condition removals, tons of blocks/blinds, and something akin to complete immunity to control effects. Between all this, I cannot be kited except by extremely skilled players and people that are specifically built for teleporting around (which tends to cripple their damage output). I can solo supply camps easily, and curbstomp 9 out of 10 thieves that attack me (and chances are the 10th one will fight to a draw). Highly skilled mesmers still give me serious trouble, but other than that, I don’t have any qualms about engaging any fight I see.

2. I don’t have much experience zerging—my build is optimized for solo roaming, so I don’t fare as well in a zerg as a build with higher durability might. Even with my build, though, Guardian does just fine with the staff. It has a huge cone autoattack that does enough damage to tag enemies, if not exactly count as a serious threat. Plus, projectile reflection/absorption is amazing in zerg fights, and we have that in spades, backed up with AoE healing and retaliation.

Can you share the build? Returning to gw2 and this sounds like what I would like to do.

The build I run is listed here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Boonway-alternative-Guardian-build

I have made some tweaks since its initial inception, so I’d recommend reading through the thread (basically, the traits are the same 0/15/0/30/25 I’ve always run, but I now run Celestial trinkets, Knight’s head/chest/legs, and Berserker shoulders/gloves/boots for a better stat spread and more general use). It also works well for PvE and dungeons. I also tinker around with different weaponsets frequently, though I’ve pretty much settled on hammer/greatsword for general roaming purposes, at the very least until scepter projectile speed gets increased.

1. Guardians can be competent solo roamers IF you are geared and know what you are doing. Most guardian players don’t know how to 1v1 very well in my experience, but they are strong in 1v1 when played well with a good build. Enemies with strong conditions and kiting abilities tend to present the biggest challenge. The main hurdles you have to overcome are mediocre mobility, lack of ranged attacks and lack of tricks to play mind games with people and avoid damage like stealth and clones.

Guards make for excellent small group roamers. Any guardian can be beneficial to a small group, even if you are a new player because the boons and control abilities you have help everyone.

2. Guardians are also excellent in zergs. Guardian buffs and consecrations are very useful in zergs and being around a zerg puts your self healing through the roof if you are running an altruistic healing build. Staff is tops when it comes to tagging enemies to get loot bags. You do, however, need to be close to the action to deal damage, which means you can end up getting targeted by a lot of enemies.

I agree with you fisher, Guardians can be good roamers if you have the gear, know what your strengths and weaknesses are and know what your opponent is going to do. I have 3 different gear sets/builds that I use depending on what i plan on doing. I have a DPS set for solo roaming/ goofing around, a clerics set for when i want to be full support and pump heals and another set im working on for frontline fighting when we run our guild zergs.

When I solo roam I know I will be seeing thieves, mesmers and direct damage crit builds for the most part so i use alot of our anti burst skills, stun breakers, ports/blinks and high damage weapons on a meditation build with mostly zerker gear. This works very well against DD builds but since i dont have very much condi removal the weakness of it is condition builds. I have an 80 Mesmer and a thief, I know their tricks so I do well against them but if I run into a condition necro I don’t bother fighting them because I know that’s my weakness and odds are in favor that I will be the one waypointing. The other two builds require a good group for them to function well, if you are set up for frontline melee fighting and no one gives you any support you will melt and die constantly, if you are set up for support/healing but no one stays near you or in your symbols then you are useless.

Now if all you want to do is run in a Zerg and collect bucket loads of badges then pick up an AH Build, equip a staff and spam your way to through the fight.

It all depends on what you want to do but keep in mind that we aren’t rangers, we don’t have a reliable long range weapon, if that bothers you don’t roll this class.

Kharel Arhew.1437:

The build I run is listed here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Boonway-alternative-Guardian-build

I have made some tweaks since its initial inception, so I’d recommend reading through the thread (basically, the traits are the same 0/15/0/30/25 I’ve always run, but I now run Celestial trinkets, Knight’s head/chest/legs, and Berserker shoulders/gloves/boots for a better stat spread and more general use). It also works well for PvE and dungeons. I also tinker around with different weaponsets frequently, though I’ve pretty much settled on hammer/greatsword for general roaming purposes, at the very least until scepter projectile speed gets increased.

Graci