Guild Wars 2

I understand that this game was designed to free players from the need to have a hard Trinity none the less they didn’t say they were going to restrict us from building our characters to function like an old fashioned Trinity role. Basically I am used to tanking, this is what I enjoy, this is how I would like to group. I am looking for a way to build my Guardian in way that I feel like a Tank. I want to go toe to toe with a foe, punch him in the face and go “now what mother *(&^%r” while I can have some self healing like a Death Knight, and aggro enough to feel some what like a tank. If this is not possible then I can always just play my Warrior and log in every once in awhile and spend most of my time in LotRO leveling one of their Guardians.

Sadly this isn’t the game for you then, now i can still build my guardian to be a complete brick with soldier or cleric gear and can take a hit. Thought that only works well with mob’s autoattacks. with some hits that will one shot the tankiest of bricks.

This is also a game were aggro is everyone’s responsibility, there is no taunt skills , you do have an aoe pull skill, but that does only so much. How aggro works depends on a lot of factors that seem to be different on different mobs.

What’s the closest I can get?

Oldirtbeard.9834:

What’s the closest I can get?

http://www.gamersaurs.com/index.php/component/k2/item/362-all-my-knowledge-the-immortal-guardian-guide-for-guild-wars-2

I think this is what you are looking for and the closest to what you wanna achieve..

Here’s the build I use for being tanky.
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcccMV0zMmrnRmmrnRm0axx0Mzsbcka
I’m wearing full Sentinel gear, with 5 runes of the soldier, 1 random other vitality rune.
My main hand weapon runs a superior sigil of life, and my off hand runs a superior sigil of energy. My alt weapons I use scepter w/ superior life, Focus with Superior energy, or I sub in a staff when I’m doing wvw or lots of pve running.
Generally though, aggro isn’t something your going to have too much of an issue with, if you’re supporting people the way your supposed to, and you’re overly aggressive (first to the fight in most cases) you’ll be alright.

as you mentioned, there is no “true tanking” in this game. and the aggro table is still a mystery in its complete sense as each mob reacts differently to each situation. though a few pointers – high toughness, damage dealt, proximity all can make a difference. especially high toughness in many cases i’ve noticed. but just know it’s not 100% full proof. so yuo can build for high toughness for starters. which is always nice for a Guard as well. not needed, but nice.

in addition, you can “tank” in this game, if by tank you mean to keep them off your allies so through area denial, cc’s and let your teammates rain down judgment on them mobs. as well as AoE blinds to negate dmg, AoE aegis or blocks, projectile reflects and absorption are other ways you can “tank” in this game. throwing out your boons help as well… protection to mitigate dmg, stability to negate CC, regen to outheal small dmg taken, etc etc

so most weapons will be able to do some of the above to a certain degree, hammer and staff offer a lot of control and area denial, swords/focus for blinds, shield has a great knockback! and utilities like sanctuary, wall of reflection, etc.

Well I can clear one mystery on tanking in this game. While you can’t truly taunt in all my months playing I noticed one thing. If you want mobs attention do big damage and passive heal a lot. You will have ANYTHING in this games attention if you have any build doing that. In most cases I can easily tank something in certain builds. And they never go away unless I die or someone else. Is doing the same thing big damage and healing.

I found this one of the most tankiest setups i played;
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|2.1c.h2|9.1c.h2.e.1c.h6|1c.71h.1c.71h.1c.71g.1c.71g.1c.b1h.1c.b1h|2u.0.2u.0.3u.0.3u.0.2u.0.2u.0|0.0.u59b.u3ab.a2|0.0|v.16.19.1b.1i|e

Only with this setup you wont hit very hard, but then again that is not what you are aiming for. When i got bored with this i changed it arround a bit;

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|2.1n.h2|9.1n.h2.e.1n.h6|1n.7h.1n.7h.1c.7h.1n.7h.1c.7h.1n.71j|2u.0.21j.0.31j.0.31j.0.21j.0.2u.0|0.0.u59b.u3ab.a2|0.0|v.18.19.1b.1i|e

A bit more def and crit chance at the cost of HP. Both these builds are not so much fun for solo play because it will take a lot of time to kill things, but in some dungeons you will be a welcome player.

Combining Writ of the Merciful and Altruistic Healing with a hammer is probably the best way to go as Blunt linked in his first build those two combined heal about 200 or so a second, add in regeneration and Virtue of Resolve and you get some serious sustain for tanking trash. The problem you will have is high burst enemies like big bosses with those 1 shot skills, no amount of defensive stats protect you fully from them.

I will quote myself from another topic

One guardian with that new sentinel’s gear with traited symbols, hammer, signet of judgement and AH. That means permanent protection, permanent 10% damage reduction (so it’s 43% overall) and ~2000 toughness. That’s like 87% damage reduction with more than 25,000 health points, immunity to conditions (soldier’s rune, pure of voice, purity) and you still hit like a truck with might blow.

CC and group damage negation is probably the surefire way to “tank” in this game as there is no official aggro table that is known.

There is the rumor and some experimentation of having high toughness attracting PvE mobs. The only thing that I’ve seen officially said by a Dev was proximity plays a role.

Blasino.3128:

CC and group damage negation is probably the surefire way to “tank” in this game as there is no official aggro table that is known.

There is the rumor and some experimentation of having high toughness attracting PvE mobs. The only thing that I’ve seen officially said by a Dev was proximity plays a role.

When taking camps on wvw the guild NPC, always comes after me ignoring like 5-15 players in front of me, i end with the npc running in circles, while waiting for the RI.

On dungeons, i can notice im the most spiked member on the team, sometimes it remmebers the 55hp monk :S.