Guild Wars 2

I use main greatsword and alt Scepter-and-Shield. During the fight with the Twisted Marionette, the second warden gives me trouble… Trying to melee them usually doesn’t end well: as soon as I notice that it’s stunned from the mines, I end up Leap of Faith’ing in just in time for the boss to break out of stun and knock me on my kitten . So I end up just ranging him with my scepter, but I do so little damage with that thing that I feel pretty useless. How do you guardians go about doing the second warden?

Once it’s been kited into it’s mines you have more than enough time to safely melee him. I have no idea what you’re doing for so long to get into that situation.

“What I’m doing for so long” is watching until the warden detonates a mine and stops spinning, at which point I immediately go in to melee. I agree— SOMETIMES you have more than enough time to melee him. Sometimes he sits there stunned for what seems like forever. But at other times, it seems like he is stunned for barely a second.

Surely I can’t be the only person who’s noticed this?

After reading your post, I thought “ok, maybe I’m just crazy and/or not paying enough attention”. But I just got back from a marionette attempt where I fought the 2nd warden, and made quadruple sure to watch him and make dang sure I know when he gets stunned by a mine. Usually he was stunned for a good 5 seconds or so, but on two occasions I LoF’ed in immediately after he got stunned, but then got immediately hit like I said before. Like he was only stunned for less than a second.

Does anybody know what the deal is?

Warden will stop(every 10 or so seconds) even if he doesn’t hit his own bomb and become venerable, but it is only for a moment. I would guess you jump on him at that moment.
I can safely get a whirlwind without any danger. And mine stun lasts quite some time.

Just stick to scepter. The DPS on that weapon is decent enough to kill the warden in time. Staying alive is much more important than increase you get from partial meleeing the fight.

Once you’ve done the fight enough times as range, you can look for opportunities to melee if you really feel comfortable with it, but there’s no need to push it unless your teammates are dying too early.

I run Hammer main and sword/focus or scepter/focus for my alt set. On warden 2 I just melee the bugger. Make sure you see him set a bomb off and then go in swinging, do not leap in with GS if he is surrounded by bombs there is usually plenty of time to step around and smash him. Even though I am a massive Charr I have had plenty of times of just skirting the bomb edges to get my hammer to his face, just takes a bit of practice.

You have enough time to WW once the warden gets stunned.
Anyways, guardian single target damage with scepter should be quite decent.

Cevlakohn.2165:

I use main greatsword and alt Scepter-and-Shield. During the fight with the Twisted Marionette, the second warden gives me trouble… Trying to melee them usually doesn’t end well: as soon as I notice that it’s stunned from the mines, I end up Leap of Faith’ing in just in time for the boss to break out of stun and knock me on my kitten . So I end up just ranging him with my scepter, but I do so little damage with that thing that I feel pretty useless. How do you guardians go about doing the second warden?

Dodge into it and make sure it hits their own mine, then DPS away with my weapons

Dahkeus.8243:

Just stick to scepter. The DPS on that weapon is decent enough to kill the warden in time. Staying alive is much more important than increase you get from partial meleeing the fight.

Once you’ve done the fight enough times as range, you can look for opportunities to melee if you really feel comfortable with it, but there’s no need to push it unless your teammates are dying too early.

^This. You can also use torch in your offhand; the scepter/torch combination works well against trash, too. Re melee against this boss: I thought that if you applied a condition to the boss, it broke or shortened the stun. That may be why it pops out of stun sooner than you expect. Not really sure, but saw that in a post. I often pop stability as I’m porting as lag can play havoc with moving out of the way in time and one less knock down can help.

xsquared.1926:

Dodge into it and make sure it hits their own mine, then DPS away with my weapons

Does dodging into a mine next to the Warden also make it vulnerable again? For example, can you dodge through the Warden and hit the mine behind it so it will become vulnerable again? Or does the Warden have to hit the mine by itself?

scepter/torch, for sure. stay at range enough to take advantage and use all the skills. swap back to staff to idle and keep people buffed for the next opening.

I didn’t have any issues using my regular weapons, Great Sword and Staff. Binding Blade and Pull (GS#5) work to drag Warden II into it’s bombs while standing just outside of the explosion range. When BB isn’t available, I just use Staff for auto-attack and Orb of Light (#2) at range. Symbol of Swiftness is decent if you’re stuck on the far side of the platform. (Some damage is better than none.)

You can watch me do it with my Guard for reference

link in signature.

Warden 2. Stability and Shelter. Stunned Warden. Melee destroy em.

Just run SYG. You have plenty of time to dodge backwards when he comes out of stun but if for some reason you miss it and get knocked down, hit SYG and kite it in a circle.

I’m on the scepter while kiting or if low on health. As soon as it’s in a circle, I switch to the sword and flash in to melee for a while.