Guild Wars 2

Hi!
I’ve mained a Thief since beta and now I have decided that I want to level a Guardian. I’ve read the two guides by Brutaly and Eveningstar, and now I’m more exited than ever for leveling a Guardian! Since I’m used to the Thief I have a quite good understanding of dodging and blinding, this is also the main reason I chose the Guardian as an alt – I just love the mobile gameplay.

My plan is to level my Guardian in WvW, mostly roaming and occasionally joining the Zerg. Does anyone here have some good advice on how to build my guardian? What stats should I get first and what traits would be the most rewarding while leveling? I’m looking at having the hammer as main weapon and just change around my off-hand as I need.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

If you’re looking to mostly roam, I don’t think a Guardian is the best way to go. Especially after playing a Thief. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it’s much more difficult. I you’re up to the challenge, I have seen two effective roaming builds, both using GS + Sword/Torch. First is the Healway build, which is what I personally use while roaming. You can find the build here on he Guardian forums. I love this build because is is extremely effective against classes with burst relying on multiple small attacks, which is common with most roaming builds. The build also can maintain itself within a zerg if you end up caught in one. The problem with this build is you will end up in a decent amount of stalemates wile roaming. Most of your damage comes through retaliation.

The only other Guardian roaming build I’ve seen work is a full zerker build with the same weapons. You can also find this build here on the Guardian forums. I personally don’t like running zerker gear in WvW, but if it’s more of your style, you may want to try it. However, I haven’t tried this particular build.

The build I use and most people use in WvW is an Altruistic Healing build with a mix of soldier’s and knights gear. Here’s what I personally run:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQJARWlYgyCXFyvDf4ERWhVi9AjwvjXPcIFZIA-j0CBYMBiABiIAI7pIas1uht6KalXBRvATdaR1aYA+DMa1CBYeBA-w
What I like about this build is that it has a decent Health Pool, a ton of toughness, 51% crit chance, stacks might really well, and heals you extremely well. However, this is more of a zerg oriented build, but that’s not to say it can’t be used to roam. I also use this build for PvE, since it’s good at keeping myself an allies alive through most encounters. You also can switch out the GS for Hammer if that’s something you prefer, though it’s damage output is lower than the GS, but has higher survivability. I think the build has enough to keep yourself alive, so I personally much prefer GS.

Honestly, just try something that looks fun to you, then switch it up a bit. You’ll end up with your ideal build once you build it yourself.

As for levelling in WvW, stick with the zerg. Stack power and use GS/Staff to get as many tags as you can, both weapons have great AoE abilities.

Edit: Typo

Thanks for the response! I forgot to say that I plan on roaming with small groups, so an altruistic healing build looks interesting. The thing that tipped me over was the guardians ability to deal nice damage as well as having very high survivability (really annoying as a thief). The healway build looks tempting too, and it’s definitely hard to counter with a thief and it usually ends up in a draw ;p

I’ll try out all three and see if some of those fits me! So far I’m having a blast with my guardian!

This guy runs a very similar build to my own. I will warn you ahead of time though both are very customized to individual play styles. That includes gear setups, traits, utilities etc. You can get an idea of it though.

Honestly, just try something that looks fun to you, then switch it up a bit. You’ll end up with your ideal build once you build it yourself.

That is awesome advice. Creating your own build is a great thing. Use build craft some of the traits are outdated, but it will give you a general idea.