Guild Wars 2

Started my Charr Guardian last night (also my very first GW2 character). First off, wow. I wish I got into this game earlier. Graphics are great. Runs extremely smooth. Just a good game. Sorry I’m so late to the party.

I’m level 4 (no need to be worried, I realize 4 is a high level… I’m not a pvper though, so you’re all safe…)

I’ve read all sorts of general game tips that are going to help me significantly… But are there any tips specific to Guardian as I level that I should be aware of?

Thanks ahead of time for any help!

For a leveling Guardian I would advise you to have a staff in your inventory. The AutoAttack on the weapon tags up to 5 targets which makes it great to get credit in events. The 3 ability also helps for swiftness which is really desired if you’re doing map/story completion or Edge of the Mists (EotM). The Retreat Utility skill also helps with swiftness as does Save Yourselves (SY) to a lesser extent.

Thematically and mechanically, Greatsword is a good weapon to keep as it has great damage and showcases a bit of the Guard’s capabilities: Boon granting auto attack, blinds on 3, symbols on 4. Main hand sword also compliments the Guard quite well with additonal blinds and their version of Guard “shadow-step”. It’s a little awkward to use at first as it has some mechanic to it that may not be well understood until later levels.

Scepter is going to be your dedicated range weapon in case you need to poke at something from afar. Focus is also good to slot as it offers a panic button on the 5.

Signet of Resolve is probabaly the best heal to go with at first as the passive does minor condition cleansing, and the heal is straight forward. Shelter is the signature heal, but is another one of those awkward skills to use at first.

Spirit weapons, while untimately unused at higher levels, can act as temporary allies. Once you hit the Lornar’s Pass map there is an event that will reward you a trait that can extend the duration of your summons. Sword and Hammer are good for allies while Shield is used quite often at higher levels. Bow goes unused despite having one of the best animations, imo.

Once you hit your Elite I would recommend Renewed Focus as an additonal panic button. There’s more potential to the skill later as you gain more experience in the class, but panic buttons are always nice when leveling.

As far as minor traits go Radiance offers blinding upon activating F1, while Honor gets you a reliable source of vigor to get more dodges. Radiance overall is a safe traitline to invest into as its minor skills are mostly universal with your skills and weapons. The other trait lines will work, but generally are better suited specific builds.

Do you plan to obtain Major traits strictly through unlocking them upon “x” completion, or do you plan to buy traits if needed? If the latter is true I can recommend some Major traits that will work for leveling.

Gear wise, that’s up to you. As my answer falls under the “I’m going to recommend what’s optimal” vs I should be recommending “it’s his first toon let him play and enjoy the game”.

My overall advice to you is to have fun playing the game with your first toon. I encourage you to try all the skill, weapons, traits, everything and don’t be afraid to make mistakes; we were all noobs at some point. There will be a time where you will buckle down and start to take the class more seriously, and when that day comes we can point you in the right directions. But for now, just have fun with the class.

Since you’re only level 4 at the moment you’ll probably want to take some time to work out what type of play style you’re aiming for but here are a few general tips that apply across the board:

-Best healing skill will always be Shelter since damage mitigation is king in this game. You’ll always want 6 points in Valor (at level 80) as it is our best skill tree without a doubt.

-Don’t bother with conditions as a Guardian unless you are going to do PvP then you can get away with a Hybrid of conditions and raw damage but for PvE it is pointless.

-Spirit Weapons are very under powered and usually due within the first 3 seconds of being summoned so you’ll want to stick with meditations or shouts for the most part while mixing in the wall of reflection if fighting a number of ranged targets.

-Keeping at least 1 point in Radiance and Honor is good as you get an aoe blind and vigor allowing you to dodge more. Since damage mitigation is king in this game both are great things to have.

Other than that if you let me know what kind of play style you’re going for I can give you a lot more pointers to help you achieve it.

savacli.8172:

For a leveling Guardian I would advise you to have a staff in your inventory. The AutoAttack on the weapon tags up to 5 targets which makes it great to get credit in events. The 3 ability also helps for swiftness which is really desired if you’re doing map/story completion or Edge of the Mists (EotM). The Retreat Utility skill also helps with swiftness as does Save Yourselves (SY) to a lesser extent.

Dumb question: How do I acquire a staff? Is it a drop? Or should I buy one?

Found a greatsword last night at level 2. Using it now. It’s fun to use. Another question for you (anyone): I read about making sure you keep your weapons upgraded, how do I do that? And can I choose the traits I want on it somehow or is it buy/pick up with the stats you get?

If “buying” traits means real money – then no, I won’t be buying. If it’s gold, I would probably do a little of that.

As far as my play style… I’m definitely going to want to be PVE and Dungeon focused. Solo a lot as far as leveling goes.

Staff (and all other gear items) is aquired through drops, buying from vendors or Trading post, or crafted.

Yes, most definitely keep your gear up to date. You don’t have to go all out or be super picky as acquiring Fine quality (“blues”) are more than enough for leveling. Crafting gear comes in every 5 levels and will be the most common gear you can buy off of the post though you can find gear of all levels. While you can check at every level for gear there’s not a night/day difference from doing so. My recommendation is to stop at every 5 levels and check the Trading post for better gear and also slot out your gear if you happen to come across a drop that does you better. You’ll definitely start to notice a problem when you’re 10 levels behind and are trying to do content. There’s also level scaling that hits you pretty hard if you’re not appropriately geared, but that’s a mechanic to look into more detail later on. For now, just now that there’s no such thing as walking into a zone that you are too high leveled for; the game will dynamically adjust your level and gear so that your potential is scaled appropriately for that map.

Work on the basics first and get your most used weapons, all armor slots, and trinkets as they become available. Sigil and runes (gear upgrades) are neat, but I wouldn’t devote too much attention just yet. They become much more important at later levels as helping define what build of character you want to play.

By buying traits I mean in game gold. There are vendors in key cities that have a Book icon over their heads. They sell “books” that upon consuming them will unlock a trait. All traits can be unlocked otherwise by completion a certain event or goal of sort so purchasing is not at all mandatory. Keep in mind that trait points come to you pretty late so they’re not something to worry about quite yet.

By play style we generally mean what role do you want to play. Common terms are support, dps, control/lockdown. E.G. If you wanted to do dps I would recommend the Trait Fiery Wrath (Trait II in Zeal) as it gives you an additional 10% damage against burning targets. For support I would offer Strength in Numbers (Valor IV).

What you should know?

http://dulfy.net/category/gw2/
http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki
http://gw2timer.com/
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first

Here some of the best website full of some of the best info about guardian or the game in general.

Otherwise explore the game. Try out everything you can as you level up and don’t start to worry about if your build is good or not until you reach level 80.

Here is a build I use for Dungeons that deals good damage and offers a fair amount of support/healing as well:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAW5dlsApVo1CxZI8DNRCRk1M2jtpXH0cA-TxBBABYp8DVdDA8EAgf/hNuIAkq+zZKBDAgA4oH9oH9oHtduzduzduzA-e

You can use this to give you a general idea of what to aim for and if you need any help with anything feel free to drop me a message in game as I’m normally just killing people in WvW and wouldn’t mind helping with a dungeon or two.

tanshiniza.8629:

that deals good damage

And by deals good damage he mean around 3k DPS fully buffed compare to 10k for a Meta build in the same situation.

tanshiniza.8629:

You can use this to give you a general idea of what to aim for

You can use this to give you a general idea of what you can do if you want an easy but long time in content. Just be sure before spending gold to acquire ascended gear of that type since you may regret it if you later want to play a proper dungeon build.

Guys, he just started playing the game. I would suggest that it’s a little too early to start throwing builds, metabattle, and all those other optimization or end-game guides at him. The OP doesn’t even know where to get his traits yet let alone shoot for a build.

He’ll get there eventually, but for now OP is at level 4. If and when he’s ready to start looking into optimization then we can flood him with advice. Think about what would have been useful to you as a level 4 character whose very first character happens to be a Guardian.

Granted, if the OP is already wanting to receive advice for such end-game content then hit him at full blast with all our guardian awesomeness. As of yet, he hasn’t made mention of this interest though.

If anything I would encourge OP to look into finding a guild that has a good mentoring/new player program. That will benefit him much more on top of the advice we can give him on the forums.

tanshiniza.8629:

You’ll always want 6 points in Valor (at level 80) as it is our best skill tree without a doubt.

That’s kind of bad advice, IMO. Valor is good in PvP, but in PvE taking any more than 2 points in it is strongly discouraged.

savacli.8172:

Guys, he just started playing the game. I would suggest that it’s a little too early to start throwing builds, metabattle, and all those other optimization or end-game guides at him.

That’s why I gave him the link to metabattle but added to explore everything he can with his guardian and don’t worry about the actual effectiveness of the build before level 80.

He shouldn’t worry about that yet, but he should be aware of it so he don’t spend gold and time on useless stuff like I did when the game started.

And yes Valor is one of the worst trait line for PvE. But a good one for WvW.

Couple things:

First, I can’t reply to PMs yet (apparently I have one more day to wait).

I’ll be in game at around 8 PM tonight. I’m going to be a somewhat casual player and I’m on the US server. Sav, it’s definitely a possibility!

Question for all of you, since everyone here seems to have a ton of quality info…

Guardian seems a little… complicated. I’m not opposed to that, but I wonder if I should start with a simpler class to learn the game mechanics first? I want to play a Guardian, but I also had a desire to play a Warrior…

So, even though my overall goal is to build a strong Guardian (it’s the class I prefer at the moment) I feel like I could learn the game mechanics a heck of a lot better with a more straight forward face smasher like the Warrior… Am I wrong? Is it better to just play the Guardian now if that’s my overall goal?

Thaddeus.4891:

That’s why I gave him the link to metabattle but added to explore everything he can with his guardian and don’t worry about the actual effectiveness of the build before level 80.

He shouldn’t worry about that yet, but he should be aware of it so he don’t spend gold and time on useless stuff like I did when the game started.

And yes Valor is one of the worst trait line for PvE. But a good one for WvW.

Thanks for the agreement.

As far as Valor goes I’ll admit Altruistic Healing is a hack, but it’s definitely a crutch in the PvE scene. I’m more of a fan of teaching people to swim by throwing them in shark filled waters. Besides, Guards excel at proactive defense so my advice would be to focus on skills and habits that prevent/mitigate damage rather than trying to recover after the fact.

DO NOT buy any armour or weapon from the trading post before like level 20. There are some folks out there to make profit on the newcomers. Buy white weapons from weapon vendors marked with a sword on the map or armour from the vendor marked with a helmet (you can find these in any capital cities and sometimes along the way…).

Are you playing from the US or EU?

Advices: complete your starting map! You will find some challenging fights. You need every renown heart unlocked. They are your first source of gear. Do not buy gear with healing power. Your main stat is power. If an item yields more power than the previous one buy it for Karma.
Get harvesting equipment ASAP. Sickle, axe and mining pick. Also buy some Salvage Kit. You can buy them from a merchant in your starting area.
At level 12-ish you may struggle to finish your map or when you head to a new level 15-25 area you might find the first few “quest” hard. Head to an Asura gate in your capital city and start doing a starting map of a different race. The drop scales up to your level. AND the most important thing: the events-hearts-exploration-mining gives exactly the same amount of XP percent if you are level 1 or 80.

Good luck!

EDIT: I saw that you are from US (EU here). Whoever helps you beg for some 8 bags and 100 2copper food It makes your life much easier

EDIT2: one more very important thing! You can enter /wiki on your chat bar then SHIFT+click on an item in your inventory. It will take you straight to the Wiki page with loads of useful informations there.

MeththeMadman.7420:

So, even though my overall goal is to build a strong Guardian (it’s the class I prefer at the moment) I feel like I could learn the game mechanics a heck of a lot better with a more straight forward face smasher like the Warrior… Am I wrong? Is it better to just play the Guardian now if that’s my overall goal?

That all depends on you. As you’ve seen in the various threads you have created the community seems to lean on Guardians having more of a learning curve over a Warrior so going with the other heavy class will definitely seem easier. While Warrior will let you focus on the game more, a Guardian will force you to pay more attention to the content and challenges. In other words, it’s a tradeoff. You can go warrior while simultaneously eating a sandwich (mildly exaggerating) since the class will forgive you for making mistakes, or you can stick with a Guard get downed from not paying attention to the content and learn from said mistake. It all boils down to how much you think you can absorb while initially playing the game.

However, there’s nothing wrong with having multiple classes; it’s even encouraged. So if you want to spend a couple days playing Guard to focus on technique then switch to Warrior when you need something a little more forgiving or need a break that works perfectly.

MeththeMadman.7420:

Guardian seems a little… complicated. I’m not opposed to that, but I wonder if I should start with a simpler class to learn the game mechanics first? I want to play a Guardian, but I also had a desire to play a Warrior…

So, even though my overall goal is to build a strong Guardian (it’s the class I prefer at the moment) I feel like I could learn the game mechanics a heck of a lot better with a more straight forward face smasher like the Warrior… Am I wrong? Is it better to just play the Guardian now if that’s my overall goal?

We can’t really answer that question for you. Everybody will have an answer about that.

Some people will say that there is easier build to use for guardian early so it won’t be an issue.

Other people will say that the best way to learn is to learn the hard way. It will take you a lot more time to get use to the profession and the game in general if you try to ease your way in too much by using easier profession and easier build. It will be smoother in the beginning, but it will be harder to learn to play more advanced build.

Everybody is different on that but here is my personal opinion.

I started by playing Guardian and Elementalist, both have the lowest amount of HP possible. All the other profession I play since then are easy since they are usually more tanky than my two main.

Most of my friends that started by playing warrior have some difficulty with other profession. They get used to it after a certain time, but they all make the same kind of comment about the difference in hp/armor.

OP please do not get the profession wrong! It does melt faces. The warrior has more HP, the Gua has more “active defence”. You do not soak the damage but avoid it. And since you have the same armour class you can still live through a few hits.

GreatSword is a good example: you can leap in (#3) and start your WhirlingWrath (#2). The mob wants to hit you but it’s Blinded. You lay down the Symbol (with #4) for some AoE damage and retaliation then you swap weapon (available at level 14 I think…). Sword #2 blinds again so the mob going to miss you AGAIN. Then you activate your Focus #5 for 3 blocks or extra damage. The mob will hit you with a huge attack but you still have your dodge and your F3 to mitigate 3 more… At this time the weapon swap is off CD so you can go back for your Greatsword and blind AGAIN

If anything survives this and you still alive then you just have found your learning curve

Thaddeus.4891:

I started by playing Guardian and Elementalist, both have the lowest amount of HP possible. All the other profession I play since then are easy since they are usually more tanky than my two main.

Most of my friends that started by playing warrior have some difficulty with other profession. They get used to it after a certain time, but they all make the same kind of comment about the difference in hp/armor.

+1 Thad

Though I started on Ele followed by Guard, but the same goes for me when learning the rest of the classes.

Alright, I’m going to stick with my Guard! Logging in now!

Overall the game is very friendly to newcomers, you can earn experience at fast rates doing a lot of different things (from PvE exploring, events, dungeons and fractals, collecting and crafting, WvW and PvP). Some general advices for players using guardians:

• Unlock all the weapon skills as soon as possible. Keep a unit of any of them in your inventory (don’t be worried about their quality until you reach 80) and change them from time to time to being familar with their skills.

• The game resources are out there for everyone, so there’s no “competition” to collect the mineral ores, trees, etc. Equally, monsters and events can be farmed in teams without hurting anyone’s drop. Take advantage of this: staff autoattack is one of the best “kill farmers” in the game due the reach and number of enemies you can hit in each attack (5). Is a very useful tool in most aspects of the game for guardians. Scepter is good weapon for long range poking against dangerous foes. Greatsword and hammer are great for AoE melee combat, sword for single target fights and mobility. The focus is more effective than the shield for this class. Once you reach level enough to go to PvP (20?) enter in the PvP hall and practice those weapon skills against the training dummies.

• Due adquiring new traits is now more expensive than when the game was released I would suggest you to spent your skill points in this order of priority:

Healing skills: Shelter, Signet of Resolve.
Utility skills: Shouts, Meditations, Consecrations.
Elite skills: Renewed Focus, Tome of Courage.

Unlocking the traits has priority over unlocking the other skills; spirit weapons, signets and ones with very limited usage -which includes racial skills) can wait.

• Since seems that you will be focused on PvE probably your most used skills would be Wall of Reflection, Stand Your Ground! and Hold the Line!

• At level 30-35 you can start doing dungeons (Ascalon Catacombs) which will provide you tons of experience, gold and tokens (which can be traded to get good quality gear at 0 cost). This will also help you to learn the basics of the use of evades, blinds, blocks and other game mechanics in which this class in heavily reliant.

Thaddeus.4891:

tanshiniza.8629:

that deals good damage

And by deals good damage he mean around 3k DPS fully buffed compare to 10k for a Meta build in the same situation.

tanshiniza.8629:

You can use this to give you a general idea of what to aim for

You can use this to give you a general idea of what you can do if you want an easy but long time in content. Just be sure before spending gold to acquire ascended gear of that type since you may regret it if you later want to play a proper dungeon build.

I’m not here to provide the god build for dungeons but something that is ‘balanced’ and by no means the Meta because the fact is not everyone wants to play the Meta. I set that build up because it is easy and doesn’t punish you too harshly for messing up.

Also the difference in damage dealing really isn’t as much as you make it out to be.

Black Box.9312:

tanshiniza.8629:

You’ll always want 6 points in Valor (at level 80) as it is our best skill tree without a doubt.

That’s kind of bad advice, IMO. Valor is good in PvP, but in PvE taking any more than 2 points in it is strongly discouraged.

Haven’t done PvE in ages and I don’t much care for Metas but when it comes down to it Valor is a good tree and can make life a lot easier for people starting off.

Got to level 10 last night. Having a lot of fun. Did it relatively quickly (I think I played for about an hour and a half). The many ways to accrue experience make the running around actually worth while (other MMOs make running around tedious, this game it feels much less).

Couple questions: Everyone keeps saying to level your weapon skills… I assumed that as my character leveled, each weapon leveled too… I’ve been using the great sword almost exclusively… Do I have to use other weapon types to unlock all of their weapon skills? I’m going to guess that’s an important thing to know! Haha!

As far as buying equipment from the trading post, which was advice that was given to me, about every 5-10 levels… How the heck can I afford it? Right now, I can’t afford one piece of level 10 gear with the money that I have.

MAC question (if anyone plays on one, if not, ignore this) – How do I activate my F1 skill without manually mousing over? Actually pressing F1 doesn’t work. I may have to reassign them to different keys.

Thanks for all of the help in here, I’m recognizing stuff as it’s happening and it’s significantly helping me through the game. I appreciate everyone’s feedback and support and I hope some other newbie Guards can get something out of this.

Weapons don’t level up or anything like that but weapon skills need to be unlocked on an individual weapon basis. You do that by equipping each weapon and using them to unlock their individual skills. In other words, fighting with a greatsword won’t unlock your hammer skills though it only take a few minutes per weapon to unlock their skills. Your 6-0 skills are unlocked through skill points which are accumulated upon reaching particular levels, doing the skill challenges on maps, or consuming the scrolls of knowledge.

Gear levels 1-20 on the trading post is tricky as the pricing fluctutates terribly due to players wanting to make a quick copper. If the pricing on the post is out of reach look on your map for NPC’s with a sword or helmet icons. They will sell you “whites” (lowest quality) gear that is always level appripriate.

As far as the F-key issues you have two options. You can change your keyboard behavior when those keys are pressed through System Preferences → Keyboard, or you can re-assign the keys to something that doesn’t interfere with your computer’s reserved keys.

Sav, I tried to friend you last night in game but I don’t know if I did it correctly. Noob and all.

Alright, good to know that I have to unlock each weapons skills. Going to start using some of these weapons that I pick up.

Are the white armor, although level appropriate, a smart idea? Or should I just try to get by with drops until I get to 20 and can actually afford stuff on the post? I almost feel like wasting money on whites will put me in a cash bind later. Then again, the cost is probably so little that by the time I get to 80 it doesn’t make a slight difference.

I added you last night, but I was only on for a few minutes. I’ll be online from about 6-11 EST tonight.

Try to keep to that 5-10 level schedule. If blues are outside of your budget right now at lease go with the whites. Right now you may seem like you’re in a financial bind, but that’ll ease as you level up and complete more events. Again, the trading post may just be a jerk right now with players ramping up pricing.

tanshiniza.8629:

I’m not here to provide the god build for dungeons but something that is ‘balanced’ and by no means the Meta because the fact is not everyone wants to play the Meta. I set that build up because it is easy and doesn’t punish you too harshly for messing up.

Also the difference in damage dealing really isn’t as much as you make it out to be.

Black Box.9312:

tanshiniza.8629:

You’ll always want 6 points in Valor (at level 80) as it is our best skill tree without a doubt.

That’s kind of bad advice, IMO. Valor is good in PvP, but in PvE taking any more than 2 points in it is strongly discouraged.

Haven’t done PvE in ages and I don’t much care for Metas but when it comes down to it Valor is a good tree and can make life a lot easier for people starting off.

1) I tested your build and it’s 3k dps. If you don’t agree then tell us what is the actual number and we’ll debunk it. It’s easy to say that ‘’oh no my build have a lot of defensive stats, but it still does good damage’‘. It’s another thing to actually do the little work needed to prove your point. Don’t run away, you challenge my numbers, give your own numbers or provide us with a video of the build something.

2) Yes exactly. Valor is a good tree TO make life a lot easier for people starting off. But that’s not what you originally said. You said that was what he should AIM for. You should AIM for a meta build, start up with an easy build and maybe finish with a hybrid build if you can’t play the meta. But you shouldn’t aim for an entry easy high defence build.

Hello and Welcome!!!
I’m the best looking Guardian NA so if you need fasion advice i’m your guy!

Alright… Level 13 now. Starting to get curious about skills…

First off, I did two skill point challenges… But when I went to unlock a skill, I couldn’t unlock any of them… But Smite Condition was already unlocked (which I didn’t do).

This is probably a noob error…

To the actual skills… From what I understand I have to unlock five tier 1 skills (1 skill point cost each) so I can unlock Tier 2 skills.

For Tier 1 these are the skills I’m looking at:

-Smite Condition (not on purpose, I wouldn’t have chosen that skill, but it’s already unlocked…)
-Signet of Judgment
-Wall of Reflection
-“Retreat”
-Bane Signet

Is that a decent start?

Furthermore, how do I check how many skill points I’ve amassed?

Thanks again for all the help here!

Press H to get to the hero panel, skills and trait tab. You can see them on the top left portion of the window.

Smite condition start unlocked by itself.

I think you need to wait until somewhere between level 10 and 20 to unlock further skill even if you have the skill point.

- Retreat, Signet of Bane and Wall of Reflection are three of the best PvE skill for a Guardian and you will use them a lot.

- Signet of Judgement is not really good. You can unlock it to get access to the other tier of skill later, but using it?? Not really. If you have difficulty playing the profession and need more defence then I guess yes, but you shouldn’t aim to using it.

Other than hitting H and seeing your current available skills points in the upper left corner there’s not a “you have acquired this many total skill points and have used so many points.”

As you’re leveling the skills you choose won’t be too make or break your game play, but you still want to make sure your taking the right skills for later on. Similiar to buying gear at a low level right now you’ll feel like you’re in a bind for skill points. Later on you’ll get to the point where you have to many of them.

So you are level 13! Gratz!

Start doing the map completion. It rewards you with gear and skill points since the skill challenges are the part of the 100% map. If you cannot fiond a place check it on the youtube. You will get 1 skill point each time you level up. Even after you got to level80 you will still earn skill points (the incoming expansion will change this…).

Smite condition is one of the better utility skill for levelling. It does some nice burst and helps you to get rid of the annoying conditions after the fight. Spider’s immobilise or 1 minute of poison and the like. Smite these off and you are out-of-combat again to run faster.

Retreat is also your friend. Faster running means more XP/hour.

Bane signet… more power… yes please!

Try to have 10 skill points when you get to level 30. This is the time to get your elite skill and the cost for the first one is ten.

Not sure if people have already told you this (too lazy to read through the forum), but a basic summary of guard from my experience (also my first char, as well as my main).

General Tips:
- Don’t rely on staff as a main weapon, but do carry staff for the might and swiftness. The symbol of swiftness seems like it gives you a small amount of swiftness in comparison to every other class’ sources of swiftness, but the way the symbol works is that you have stay standing on it for the duration to stack. If you stand on it for the full duration, you should get around 20 seconds of swiftness and pretty much be able to keep up permanent swiftness uptime, without forcing you to get save yourselves or retreat.

-Greatsword is perfect for PvE purposes, since mobs are dumb and don’t really dodge your whirl, they stand around in your symbol all day.

-Damage is your best friend. Guardian already is capable of supporting the party really well (especially if you swap for staff to quickly buff and go back to your main weapon). Don’t stat for healing/defense, since this game rewards actively dodging and blocking (something guards have a crapload of) more than just face tanking.

-As for heal skills, you’ll find shelter to be of much more use in the higher levels (since it blocks, and blocks are your friend). Signet of Resolve is fine for now. Litany is terrible, even when traited for. Healing Breeze is nice, but most players don’t need the pittance it provides, so you may as well roll the best heal for yourself.

-As for elites, the tomes are really nice. Renewed focus is the best for pvp, so don’t worry about getting/using it until you’re good and ready to start fighting players because it provides an invulnerability to damage for 2 seconds (again, much better than facetanking).

-As for utilities, a full bar of meditations (when traited for) allows you to acheive the maximum damage output possible for guardian. Shouts are really good support and you’ll come to realize that stability is super useful in high level content. You never want to slot full spirit weapons or full consecrations, since you’re terrible hampering your damage/support capabilities, but feel free to grab one (like spirit hammer for the knockdown, or shield of the avenger for the super long duration range attack block, or bow of truth for the condition removal, or purging flames for the condi removal, hallowed ground for the stability (super important), sanctuary for the all powerful damage mitigation).

-As for traits, the breakdown is pretty much like this
xx Zeal is straight up damage. This tree also improves your greatsword and scepter damage, along with a buff to your focus and spirit weapon cooldown, which is really useful later on.
xx Radiance is for more bursty (more crits) damage. It buffs your sword and gives you a very sweet bonus to your crit damage.
xx Valor is for meditations. This tree is a little too much in my opinion, since it provides both the best possible offense and the best possible healing all in one tree.
xxHonor is for support. You get heals on your symbols and you get buffs to your shouts, which is are arguably the best support utilities for guard (and in the game).
xxVirtues is for a general buff to you and to your profession skill (your virtues). Never EVER go more than 4 points into this line. A full 6 is pointless and it, again, hampers your ability to preform.

Thats pretty much it. Fortunately, guardian is such a well rounded class that its really hard to mess yourself up, and since its so easy to try other skills/weapons/builds, you can make as many mistakes as you want as you work towards your ideal fit.

Some good information, but a good amount of misinformation in the last post.

- Staff is a bad combat weapon and you should never switch to it in the middle of a fight. 10 second in staff isn’t worth the 12 stack of might because that might is really short in duration and the dps of a staff is one of the worth for the guardian. At the start of a fight yes, between fight yes, in the middle of a fight no. It’s a great weapon when you run around, or for PvP, but not for PvE fight.

- Renewed focus is arguable the best elite for both PvP and PvE. Tome are ok.

- Full bar of meditation have good burst damage in PvP, but that’s far from the highest damage possible.

- Shout are really good in PvP, in pve only Retreat is really powerful. The others are situational, they are good in specific situation only. They are certainly not the best support in the game at all. Blind, Aegis, Reflect, Protection are the best support. Shout can provide some of them, but they are not always the best source of those. Which mean that Honor trait line can be good in PvP, but not in PvE (except for Hammer build and vigor on crits).

- Never even go 5pts in Virtues is a SUPER BAD ADVICE. Either go 2 pts or 5pts. 4 pts is a bad choice in general but for some build you don’t have a choice (but that’s very situational). 6pts on the other end is rarely a good idea.

Any guardian worth his salt knows to swap to staff for might/swiftness before a fight and then swap back to their main weapon. I, personally, keep my inventory open and as small as possible so I can swap between my hammer and my staff when in OOC for might/swiftness. I never said to have it as part of your main two weapons.

Renewed focus gives you 2 seconds of invuln which aren’t that big of a necessity in PvE due its simplicity. Tome is great if you can find the spots to get it to work.

Meditations provide very high fury uptime which leads to many crits. No other guardian set of utilities provide any type of damage bonus aside from the weapons which are still lackluster.

Shouts (or rather, guardian shouts) are the best support utilities in the game, probably slightly outclassed by an engineer or a well necro, but shouts are much easier to apply which makes them the best. Retreat is the weakest of all of the shouts, since every other class with the exception of probably mesmers and necros has access to their own swiftness.

Please re-read carefully before you bash.

If you’re running solo we can all agree that the pre-fight might from staff is great. Though you can still switch out to a more effective weapon as you have not yet entered combat. Other than for tagging or farming staff should be shelved. In a group, however, staff empower is not the optimal way to go as even un-buffed fire-blasting will last you longer than the empower. If your group lacks the knowledge on how to fire-blast consider that an opportunity to show them the combo rather than short-cutting with a skill.

Renewed Focus can still be a go-to for the majority of PvE content. It’s not so much the invulnerability that makes it valuable but rather that it recharges your virtues which is arguably the better end of the deal depending on how you’re traited. Wrath tome can be used in organized groups for the quickness, but Courage tome still feels awkward to use given cast times on its signature skills.

Utility wise a full bar of meditations is not at all optimal. Without the Fury trait (which he won’t get til much later on) the meditations lack potential. That, and I would generally recommend flat bonuses rather than rng bonuses (Fury doesn’t guarantee the crit but rather makes it more likely to crit). The other big issue being that medi-bursting leaves you vulnerable, and you don’t always have the opportunity to engage. As a leveling Guard I won’t put more focus on learning the fights rather than chancing a burst. Fiery Wrath and Unscathed Contender are two great damage boosters that are accessed early on. Shouts are situational to use, but Retreat has access to an additional aegis is why it is considered universally worthwhile; the swiftness is a bonus but not the selling factor. Wall and Retreat are two great utilities carry, the last slot being used to counter the situation you’re in.

I know. Personally, I use renewed focus because I’ve been pvping for so long that not having on my bar makes me feel a little naked. Tome of Wrath, though, can throw out some serious DPS. Of course, it isn’t on par with lich in terms of raw damage, but its still really nice. I’ll agree that courage is a little iffy, but oh well. Although, I will admit that I should’ve clarified that my advice was based on a person who hit cap, since PvE is so simple you could even run without any utilities equipped and still do fine. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend unscathed contender because all it takes a single hit from ANYTHING and boom, a useless trait. I understand why people would lean towards more flat bonuses rather than RNG, but you have to realize that the bonus crit , in the long run, makes for much more damage than a person running, say, soldier stats. As for retreat, like the point you brought up about teams knowing how to blast fire fields for might, I think a team of competent players know how to dodge the already very simple to avoid attacks in this game that wasting a slot for a single block is pointless.

If a guard is running soldier stats, then yes, any bit of fury/crit chance will make a huge difference to him. Though, most of the time when we’re running soldier’s we’re generally concerned with survivability and are running corresponding defensive traits (needing to go “tank mode” for something) or fighting a construct like Teq. In short, if I had the choice of taking 4 in Valor for Focused Mind vs 4 in Radiance for Powerful blades I would lean towards the latter.

Fire-Blasting is manageable, if the team messes up the combo they wait a bit and can try again. Messing up a dodge or a blind mid-fight? That may not be as manageable and could lead to a down. Thus, the extra Aegis from Retreat is highly valued. Even in a team that is highly seasoned the players will still make mistakes.

Defensively, retreat is used to cover your team when things go wrong or, when well-communicated, can allow your team to save their dodge for a future attack that is otherwise un-blockable or unpredictable. E.G. Throw up and Aegis when Mossman stealths so that the team can use their dodge for an attack that’s avoidable (“killshot” when he crosses his arms).

Offensively, retreat can be used to keep uptime on Unscathed contender or can be used on other players so that they don’t need to interrupt their attacks such as a Warrior’s 100b.

Anyways, we digress. For now, my advice for new guards would be to keep retreat slotted as that extra aegis would be very valuable to them.

Oh, two more quick tip:

Turn off autotarget and melee assist. I don’t even know why are these on by default.

WvW wise….how would you compare guardians and warriors (roaming and zerging)

Yes it’s a fun game. I also discovered it recently and am kicking myself.

One thing that isn’t explained in game is fields and finishers. If you haven’t read up on combos I suggest you do so. For example, greatsword 4 sets a field that can be finished by greatsword 2 and 3 and you get extra effects.
Worth checking in to.

Also do your dailies every day you can. A good source of mays, experience and items.

Even if you’re not a big pvper I highly suggest doing one or two matches every day. You get all sorts of great rewards very easily and it’s the easiest way in the game to get 3 exotic weapons quickly at 80.

Thanks for all the tips. I’m currently attempting to figure out where I want to go with my guardian long term. Even though I haven’t tried it yet, I’m thinking wvw may actually wind up being an option for me, but I’d still primarily be PVE.

I’m only level 22 at the moment, so keep in mind I still don’t understand many of the mechanics… But I DO want to try to find a build/way of playing that minimizes needing to switch traits/skills for the time being (I understand that you have to be more flexible long term, but for now, I feel like that’s too much and I will ease myself into it).

I’m thinking that Hammer/Sword + Focus would be a good way to play for now…

With hammer, you have MB + the chain that grants a symbol. I can root if necessary and MB is a gap closer.

With sword/focus I have a blind, protection and an added blind. If I open with Hammer chain (1) > MB (2)> Switch > Blind (2) > Shield (5) > Auto (1) > Blind (4) > Switch… is there any issues there?

I think Altruistic Healing is something I’m going to look towards once I get to traits, but traits wise I’m still confused as I haven’t reached them yet. Shouldn’t be long, though, before I’m dungeon capable, so planning ahead is important.

I’d highly suggest trying everything as you level up. Try all the weapons, get to understand how they work and what they do. Try every skill. You’ll write some off but then come back later and realize how effective they are. I’ve been playin since launch and am still learning new applications for different stuff.

At 80 a lot of people running dungeons are looking for others running ‘DPS’ or Berserkers gear and running a build that pushes good dps. You’re going to feel squishy until you realize how powerful reflects, blinds and Protection are. Get really good at dodging, practice the timing.

Altruistic Healing can be frowned upon in PvE. Even if you’re geared dps you’re losing a ton of damage. Instead look to ‘heal on crit’ food if needed like Omnomberry Pie and similar. AH is ok in WvW but I’d caution using it other places, its very effective but no optimal in PvE.

Keep in mind that you can reset trait point allocations; the purchase and acquisition of the traits are permanent.

Training wheels wise the first trait I would suggest is Vigorous Precision (Honor 1) as you will get faster endurance/dodge recovery, and we cannot stress enough how important it is to know when to dodge.

Your second point can go into Justice is Blind (Radiance 1) or you can continue in honor for Superior Aria (Honor II). The first will allow you to get further practice with the blinding condition which is one of the Guard’s primary tactics for damage mitigation. The second trait will allow for faster recovery of your shout skills (retreat, most importantly).

In the long run if you continue with Hammer you’ll want to stick to Zeal (up to 5) or Honor (up to 4) as both lines have traits that modify the potential of symbols. For Sword/Focus you’ll want to max out the Radiance as that line buffs main hand weapons especially main hand sword.

Altruistic Healing (AH for short) is a good crutch as you start out the game and is used end game in certain builds for PvP/WvW, but for PvE you’ll want to graduate from it as soon as you feel comfrotable doing so. Remember, AH is a reactive defense, and it also affects you only.

MeththeMadman.7420:

I’m thinking that Hammer/Sword + Focus would be a good way to play for now…

I think Altruistic Healing is something I’m going to look towards once I get to traits, but traits wise I’m still confused as I haven’t reached them yet. Shouldn’t be long, though, before I’m dungeon capable, so planning ahead is important.

Hammer is a good camping weapons. Meaning that it can do a good amount of DPS without swapping weapons. All of it’s dps come from the auto-attack so just auto-attack and use other skill when you need it. The most important thing if you play Hammer is to take the trait writ of persistance. It’s a 50% dps increase from the symbol. Without it Hammer is an ordinary weapon, with it hammer is a top weapon.

Sword is also an auto-attack weapon, but less good than hammer. You usually want to use Sword with GS because GS have a good burst but bad auto-attack so Sword can make up for the weakness of GS. But with hammer, Sword help you that much. Each time you will switch to sword you will drop a little bit in dps, but not much. If you play that stay in Hammer unless you need to blind and block of Sw/Focus.

Mace/Focus or GS as secondary would be better. With GS you can swap each 15 seconds do GS skill 2-5 then swap back to Hammer. With Mace/Focus you can swap to use Mace 2 which is also improved with Writ of Persistance. Both would have around the same dps with Hammer + GS a bit ahead, but Hammer + M/F better as sustain yourself and your team.

For AH, it’s a good training wheels but you should be looking to stop using it eventually. Timing your aegis, blind, block, reflect, etc will be more efficient while you can put the pts from AH to more powerful trait. But like I said, it’s a good starting point. I use AH for the six first month in PvE before switching. And it’s a really really good trait for WvW.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but traits that increase our damage by X% really do a lot of heavy lifting. Fiery Wrath, Symbolic Power, Radiant Power, Elusive Power (sort of), Power of the Virtuous, Unscathed Contender, etc… You can see the biggest gains here regardless of weapon for the most part.

Don’t worry Blood, we’ll bombard him with that later. Right now it’s important he understands and practices Guard-ing mechanics such as blocks, blinds, etc. We’ll show him how to melt faces later with all those synergetic traits, hehe.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Any guardian worth his salt knows to swap to staff for might/swiftness before a fight and then swap back to their main weapon. I, personally, keep my inventory open and as small as possible so I can swap between my hammer and my staff when in OOC for might/swiftness. I never said to have it as part of your main two weapons.

Renewed focus gives you 2 seconds of invuln which aren’t that big of a necessity in PvE due its simplicity. Tome is great if you can find the spots to get it to work.

Meditations provide very high fury uptime which leads to many crits. No other guardian set of utilities provide any type of damage bonus aside from the weapons which are still lackluster.

Shouts (or rather, guardian shouts) are the best support utilities in the game, probably slightly outclassed by an engineer or a well necro, but shouts are much easier to apply which makes them the best. Retreat is the weakest of all of the shouts, since every other class with the exception of probably mesmers and necros has access to their own swiftness.

Please re-read carefully before you bash.

1) Staff. If you are in a party without any source of might and you are out of combat so you can Might up, switch your staff to another weapon, then go into the fight, i guess than ya. Or if you are using Hammer and staff, using staff at the start of a fight, then swapping to hammer and staying hammer for the rest of the fight. Or if you are in a team of high dps character and no one is giving might. Otherwise it’s never useful to bring a staff. The might from staff is short duration and it lock you in one of the worth PvE weapon.

2) Tome of Wrath can do some dps, but unless your build is bad you will do FAR more dps by your own than using this tome.

3) Meditation build. Let say a 4/6/4/0/0 build with mediation. It would actually be decent in solo situation. Compare to a 4/6/2/0/2 build it would be similar in dps. A 3/5/6/0/0 meditation build for more healing would lack a bit in term of dps. Those are not bad solo build. But it’s useless in half decent group since a elementalist can provide perma fury without sacrificing anything. But like I said, medi build won’t be really better than a 6/6/2/0/0 or 4/6/2/0/2 build in solo situation in term of dps, while limiting yourself when it come to your skill.

4) Are you talking about PvE or WvW. Pick one side and don’t switch. Or you are talking about PvE all along. If it’s the case you don’t know much don’t you. Retreat is the most powerful shout for PvE. Who care about switfness, they could remove it from retreat it would change anything it’s the aegis that matter. You can prevent a attack for all your party, and when you know when you use it you can provide up to 50 000 of incoming damage for your whole team. Attack of 10k is not rare at all at fractal 50 in a team of zerker. Not rare at all. Hold the line provide 14% protection uptime while the regen is pathetic. If you need protection Hammer will give you perma protection. Save yourself give a couple of good boons but only for yourself. It’s a nice thing in specific situation, but most of the time it’s useless. Stand your ground is also situational. Stability is not really useful most of the time in PvE. Except retreat, all shout are really situation in PvE. They are nice when you need specific things (like stability of vigor), but for the vast majority of the time you don’t want them. Of course that’s only for PvE. In WvW it’s another story.

So yes I read attentively and it’s worst than I though.

1)I clarified my point, get off it. You’d be a fool to decline starting a fight with 12 stacks of might and 20+ seconds of swiftness at literally no cost to you.

2)Tome of wrath is fun. I never claimed it was better than renewed focus, so again, get off this point. PvE is nothing but jumping through hoops anyways.

3)6 points in zeal? What’re you honestly going to get with 6 points in zeal that would justify spending all those points? I’ll agree with 4/6/4/0/0, since we’ve got more than enough damage mitigation to not have to worry about healing, but having monk’s focus there is nice. I’ll also agree with 4/6/2/0/2, regardless of my disdain for unscathed contender.

4)PvE is laughably easy, WvW is either a blobfest or roaming, and sPvP is sPvP. Retreat in any of those situations would be a terrible choice and basically be a wasted slot on your bar. SYG provides stab, which is probably one of the strongest boons in the game. With stab, your team mates dodge roll un-impeded, and still have plenty of stability left in case they make a mistake. Hell, they could just walk right out of the BIG. RED. CIRCLES. without much effort. You’re talking about the highest level of PvE which literally one dungeon vs the rest of the game. Do your team mates honestly need YOU to block for them when pretty much every class in the game as their own way of getting through damage? At least with stab, you give them a chance to make a mistake, as opposed to their entire livelihood being based off of your timing. You’re basically babying your team with retreat.

Come now, are you even trying?

1) And I responded that yeah in some very limited aspect, but it’s not worth it most of the time because how bad is the duration of the might and how bad Staff is in PvE. If you don’t like being challenged on what you say on the forum, that’s not my problem.

2) Ok then. But you didn’t said that initially. You didn’t say, Tome are nice but mostly fun. Renewed Focus is the best for PvE and PvP. That’s not what you said.

3) 6/6/2/0/0 you get AW and more power. I know this sound not so interesting, but if you actually test it you will see that it’s actually a little bit better dps than 25% uptime on UC. It’s also a more reliable DPS than 4/6/0/0/2 because like you know UC can vary a lot.

4) You are right. In PvE you always need stab, stab is god and we always need it to do anything. Mobs in PvE always chain cc you in all dungeon, in all situation. And anyway, it’s not like every respectable record guild and meta build out there use retreat right. Nobody use it since it’s so bad. Anyway PvE is laughably easy and WvW is only a blobfest. What I’m doing playing this game, Jesus.

Gotta be honest, the back and forth is confusing the crap out of me…

I get that I should have SYG on my bar…

Do I want Retreat?

What utilities should I be using at level 22? What are some good ones come dungeon time that I should definitely invest in?

Currently I have Bane Signet, SYG and Retreat. My heal is the default, which I believe is Shelter.