Guild Wars 2

I should preface that overall, I love the Guardian profession more than any other profession I’ve played. They have tons of survivability built in, and I love using Greatsword for some DPS (with Sword/Torch as backup burning fun).

But my one complaint? Movement.

I use Retreat a bit, and then the Staff-3 power for some extra swiftness when just doing exploration stuff, but there’s nothing permanent. All the other classes have either a passive signet or a trait that grants movement speed buffs except for Guardians – although not all these traits are permanent (Mesmers, for example, only get the buff when their Illusions are out).

For a melee class, it’s been tough sometimes. I’m only level 37 now, I should note, but when I last ran the Ascalon Catactombs story dungeon, there is that boss that is on a small platform in the center with another platform circling around (and a small plank of wood connecting the two). Due to being melee and having slow movement speed, by the time I got to the boss he had teleported away, and then by the time I got to his new destination he teleported away again.

Does anyone else run into this frustration, or have any suggestions?

[I should note that I also play a Norn Guardian, and while I understand that Norns aren’t actually slower than other races, their large size does make them feel slower.]

I think the speed of guards is fine. As you level up more, you can spec to essentially have 100% swiftness uptime if you want.

As for dungeons, try GS + scepter/focus or shield. I rarely use a staff anymore.

How would I go for 100% swiftness uptime, out of curiosity?

All others classes… Then there’s the mesmer

2 superior runes of monk
2 superior runes of water
2 minor runes of sanctuary

omnomberry cream food

You can actually go over 100% boon duration if you wanted to.

Personally I think the speed on the Guardian is fine, but I’m Shout GS/Staff built so I’ve got access to tons of speed through retreat, save yourself, staff #3, and GS leap. I can practically go from dead last to the front of the pack.

Yes Excursion. But those runes are enough for permanent swiftness . You don’t even need any food with boon duration if you have 20% faster recharge on 2-handed weapons, then the cast it is timed perfectly with the end of swiftness.

GS #3 + 1h Sword #2 + Judge’s Intervention = So much fun!

Yes, you need a target for it, but you can cover some serious ground if you’re chasing someone down.

Speed? Who needs speed when we have CC, blinks and leaps? If you wanna explore then staff, Save yourself and retreat with some boon duration food and superiour aria.

You think it’s bad, you should try playing a Mesmer……..their speed buffs don’t even stack.

Our speed is definitely not the worst and is fine in my opinion. Like people have said just try Mesmer..they have it tough indeed! Long live Guardians :P <3

For the specific fight you mentioned, I personally don’t think it’s a fight where it’s worth it to go back and forth to melee him because of the terrain setup. I’d probably range him with scepter when he’s in the center and melee him when he’s off the center. You won’t find yourself in that situation too much, and even then, no amount of swiftness really helps, especially when you’re slowed down because of combat.

I get 1 min+ swiftness in pve when using a Superior Sigil of Swiftness on, say, my shield.
It’s a good supplement to Guardian’s otherwise less mobile nature. Yes, we have two teleports and a leap but I’m not using any of them as it gimps the supportive nature of my build.

For map exploration/harvesting I run GS/Staff on a shout guardian. Speed is not a problem.

What is far worse for me is ranged combat. We have none to speak of …
And please don’t mention that terrible scepter …

I would use our range weapon in that situation, the scepter. I use sceptor/focus a lot, sometimes more than GS depending on the enemies.

I use shouts and food to increase my movement speed, especially while exploring.

I agree with bri, scepter/staff should be improved.

Irena.1062:

I agree with bri, scepter/staff should be improved.

not only that they need to add another condition to one of the weapons, most classes can at least make decent use of condition builds where guardian is lacking outside of burning damage (and confuse/poison for an asuran in PvE)

silentspy.1875:

I should preface that overall, I love the Guardian profession more than any other profession I’ve played. They have tons of survivability built in, and I love using Greatsword for some DPS (with Sword/Torch as backup burning fun).

But my one complaint? Movement.

I use Retreat a bit, and then the Staff-3 power for some extra swiftness when just doing exploration stuff, but there’s nothing permanent. All the other classes have either a passive signet or a trait that grants movement speed buffs except for Guardians – although not all these traits are permanent (Mesmers, for example, only get the buff when their Illusions are out).

For a melee class, it’s been tough sometimes. I’m only level 37 now, I should note, but when I last ran the Ascalon Catactombs story dungeon, there is that boss that is on a small platform in the center with another platform circling around (and a small plank of wood connecting the two). Due to being melee and having slow movement speed, by the time I got to the boss he had teleported away, and then by the time I got to his new destination he teleported away again.

Does anyone else run into this frustration, or have any suggestions?

[I should note that I also play a Norn Guardian, and while I understand that Norns aren’t actually slower than other races, their large size does make them feel slower.]

Hey Silent Spy,

With 10 Pts into Honor, you can take Superior Aria for shout recharge. Between Retreat, Save Yourself, and Staff you should have permanent swiftness. Classes with passive run speed are moving at +20% usually, swiftness is +33%.

First, use staff rune to get 8 second swiftness, then use both shouts at once to stack duration. Once your swiftness runs out, repeat staff followed by shouts.

It’s important to note that staff swiftness will not stack on top of an existing swiftness boon, but you can stack other sources of swiftness on top of the staff.

Guardian is actually a great class for zone explore… you can easily kill large numbers of mobs of your level or make easy work out of a Veteran. Aegis often eats any cripple that a mob would open with if you want to just run by, and you can use Judge’s to port around the zone a little faster if you like.

Best of luck!
-Sed