Guild Wars 2

I’ve been switching a bit back and forth between my engineer (25) and my ranger (15) and I am a bit uncertain if I should continue playing one of them or start a guardian. I was just wondering if some of you more experienced guardian players could give me some input on how the class is around higher levels.

I know that ANet got rid of the “holy trinity” of tank/dps/healer and all that, but I am still under the impression that the guardian is more or less just a tank with supporting abilities. As a guardian, are you still able to kill things relatively efficient on your own, and how is the class in pvp? I don’t need to hear “the class is kittene and they keep nerfing us blabla” since that’s just forum bias and likely to change anyway. I am more interested in how the class works, are you more of a defender that holds a point on your own and support others, or are you able to also kill someone?

Any advice/input is much appreciated

You are able to kill, yes.
With the Guardian however, it really depends a lot on how you play.
I think most people prefer to run with a combination of at least vitality
and toughness and/or healing power. Anyhow, there’s a lot to manage.
Guardians rely quite a bit on boons, such as protection, that reduce damage
by 33%. So if you’re not using the various combo-fields, boons & other utilities
as well as sometimes just plain dodging, it can be easy to get the feeling of things
like “I have no health, compared to the other classes” or “I die all the time”.

Guardians are really awesome, because even IF you actually suck, you still have abilities which can at least benefit others around you. My style of play is very much tank/support-oriented, as I enjoy those roles.

In PVP many people complain about the Guardians lack of ranged options, which is true. We can only utilize the scepter, because it has a decent amount of range on it. But like with everything else, it depends on how you play and there IS a place for Guardians in PVP.

I would recommend you at least get your characters to 30 by the way ^^. If those are your only two.

As a Guardian… we rock. Leveling is a breeze; you can do insane stunts and get away with it if you run a decent build. I ran (and still run) a shout/boon-based build that excels in both solo and group play (permaswiftness is an amazing thing while leveling). I have no trouble whatsoever pulling and killing packs of 6+ mobs, even in Cursed Shore. While leveling, it was by no means uncommon for me to pull and kill 3-4 mobs at once, often with a veteran in the mix.

Guardian is by no means just a tank with some supportive abilities. We “support” very well—but the character that we support best is ourselves. Yes, we’re hard to kill when well-played. Yes, we can support ourselves and others. But we also do very heavy consistent DPS. Guardian DPS is all about staying power. Get in the fight, stay in the fight, and keep smacking stuff. Dead DPS is no DPS, but you should rarely be dead.

Don’t try our ranged options in leveling; the staff deals abysmal damage soloing, and the scepter has too much of a single-target focus to be effective in open-world PvE. Drop the mace you get to start with as soon as possible. Get and keep a good, up-to-level hammer and greatsword—they’re all you really need to roll through most PvE content.

At 80, it’s a whole ‘nother ballgame; most or all of our weapons have excellent uses in group play. For leveling, though, you’ll be best off sticking with hammer and greatsword.

I am afraid you have got us Guardians a bit wrong.
We are not really tankish at all.

Guardians have good toughness, but very low health.
We can blind and block to stay alive.

Meanwhile, guardians have some great AoE (my engineer and ranger pale in comparison). And we have some excellent single target attacks.

Really, the only thing we lack is range (which we pretty much totally lack).

Play-style with a Guardian is dependent on build. A Greatsword build will have you wade into the center of combat and then unleash a flurry of devastating AoE attacks. A hammer Guardian will allow you to dominate one target. A sword and focus combo, will give you both strong defense and strong offense. Meanwhile mace and torch will have you blocking and burning enemies.

Further, there are a wide variety of trait specs that will allow you to do everything from self-heal continually, spam burning and blinding, buff your group, or play a glass cannon.

Second only to Ranger (and just slightly better than Necromancer) Guardian is the best balanced class in GW2. It is a blast. So welcome! We’d love to have you!

One thing I love about (at least our forum) is that
we say “We” ohh man.

Guardian is a solid choice ^^. Just don’t expect high
HP haha.

Wow, this response was much more than I had expected, cheers guys! And yeah, you’ve really helped me a lot and I am definetaly giving guardian a go now!

• pops in to character creation screen *

I am delighted to be a part of the “we”, and sorry for the prejudice regarding the class!

If you happen to be on my server, I’d be most happy to
come help you out if need be.