Guild Wars 2

Salutations ladies and gents,
I have been playing the game for a few months now, I have leveled (what seemed to be from what I gathered here and there) one of the “hardest or annoying” professions to level, Mesmer, which I actually enjoyed very much. With that being said, I am interested in making one of the heavy armor professions and I was mostly interested in Guardian/Dragonhunter. I just want to know how does this specific profession fairs compared to the two other heavy armor wearers. I will be looking to do a balance of every mode in the game, meaning a bit of PvE and PvP here and there. I am not only looking for a PvP or only a PvE comparison.
Also, since I still have the level 80 boost would you suggest to boost the Guardian. I understand that leveling the old fashioned way helps understand the profession better. However, the learning curves are never an issue for me when I try something new. I have leveled other professions so I have an understanding of how things work and I am planing to go back to the lower zones to explore and do the map completion stuff even if I boost to 80.
Your opinions are appreciated and I thank you in advance, cheers!

My most in-depth comparison will be regarding PvE since I am pretty versed with it in that game mode, but not in PvP.

Comparisons compared to Warrior and Revenant in PvE:
- Out of the 3 heavy armor classes, Guardian has the highest potential DPS at the time of writing this post.
- Guardian can’t provide offensive party support through Might stacking like a Warrior can.
- Guardian can provide a lot of defensive utility without sacrificing too much, but Revenant has to sacrifice a legend which is quite a lot, all things considered.
- Guardian can give Aegis to other party/raidsquad members which in PvE can be an extremely good thing if utilised correctly. Warrior and Revenant can’t do that.
- Guardian doesn’t have a profession-specific offensive buff like Warrior does (Banners, Empower Allies) which sucks.

In PvP I understand that Guardian is a wrecking machine at low tier PvP because of the way that Guardian works, but you can also get screwed pretty easily at high tier PvP compared to the two other classes.

Guardian is a fairly simple class to learn, so if you’re in EU you can hit me up and we can talk. :>

Above guy talked about pve so I’ll tell you about pvp.

In PVP heavy armor classes aren’t that amazing surprisingly, as most metas at least one of them is OP. ATM, revenant is the weakest class, but the balance is decent so even the weakest class can perform well.
Warriors are also similar to guardians in that they succeed in 1v1. Typically warriors are easier to play bc their builds are simple and the counterplay relies on dodging abilities (something that not even gold tier players can do). Therefore warriors are good in low tier and even semi high tier. Guardians on the other hand IN LOWER tiers rely on the fact that no one understands it’s abilities, like walking through traps etc. CC is also good on DH, since its aoe and easily landable unlike warrior’s single target CC. Anyway, in upper tier DH can still be good, but you have to be reasonably decent at it. I doubt if youre new to the game you’ll be above silver tier, so DH is probably the way to go for you.
In terms of FUN in pvp, both revenant and guardian are pretty fun. They explode people and knock them around doing a lot of dmg with a lot of sustain. However rev is harder to play, but imo more fun to play once you get it down. That said some ppl enjoy landing 1 skill on warrior and watching them die to condis over 10s lol.

Anyway here’s a quick breakdown of each class in 1 line:
Revenant: teamfighter DPS, finishes people off, melts bunkers, OK 1v1, strong 2v2’s with supports, kinda hard to play
Warrior: mostly 1v1 with conditions, hard to kill even in 1v2, can melt some bunkers overtime, strong 1v1, easy to play
Guardian: half 1v1 and half otherfights its decent in both, can be difficult to kill 1v2+ but takes the same amount of time for 1v1 due to reliance on cd, great for killing squishies but terrible for killing bunkers, pretty easy to play at low tier.

In PvE you can just spam the auto attack with the hammer and reach easily lvl 80. Nothing should be able to really give you any issue. In PvP… well I’m not to sure so I won’t say anything.

NB.: Mesmer leveling was my favourite. This was my first character out of 9 and I enjoyed the gameplay way more than the guardian with which I often yawn because of how it’s boringly easy.

Dadnir.5038:

In PvE you can just spam the auto attack with the hammer and reach easily lvl 80. Nothing should be able to really give you any issue. In PvP… well I’m not to sure so I won’t say anything.

NB.: Mesmer leveling was my favourite. This was my first character out of 9 and I enjoyed the gameplay way more than the guardian with which I often yawn because of how it’s boringly easy.

I’d say if you play with hammer, getting bored is pretty much your own fault.

Out of the 3 heavy armor classes, I’d say guardian is the most versatile in what it can do. Guardians are more than welcome in any game mode, be it sPvP, WvW or PvE. You can pretty much build it any way you like, you can do DPS, you can tank and you can support as well. However, considering this game in general, tanking and supporting only have limited uses.

Guardians are probably the least mobile of the three, as they don’t have a permanent speed boost anywhere. I do have to point out that revenants mobility comes from Shiro and Glint, and if you drop either, you’ll cut down your mobility in half. And you can’t even access Glint until you ESpec.

Yannir.4132:

I’d say if you play with hammer, getting bored is pretty much your own fault.

I agree and in open world, hammer hardly makes sense anyway. GS or sword+torch/focus will kill standard enemies faster with their burst and have much more interactive gameplay. Hammer has just one niche where it’s superior: mobs that require CC. But I think those are rather rare while leveling.

CptAurellian.9537:

Yannir.4132:

I’d say if you play with hammer, getting bored is pretty much your own fault.

I agree and in open world, hammer hardly makes sense anyway. GS or sword+torch/focus will kill standard enemies faster with their burst and have much more interactive gameplay. Hammer has just one niche where it’s superior: mobs that require CC. But I think those are rather rare while leveling.

And if you just want to absolutely blow up everything in PvE rock scepter with zealous scepter and permeating wrath traits. You will have 25 might permanently, and take down hordes like no tomorrow. Pretty much do insane damage from range unlike most other classes that have to be melee to do great damage. Off-hand as a shield is nice for the CC or torch for even more damage, I prefer shield for the utility while in open PvE. This is all for open world and dungeons/fractals.

For raids if you rock a guardian you are pretty much only a DPS class. Though since you have a mesmer, you can guarantee an easy spot if you’re willing to be a buff bot.

Edit: Another nice thing about Guardian that no one has said is that Anet basically balances around it (at times things veer off terribly but mostly it’s good), and since that is the case Guardian has always been viable and in a solid place even if it lags behind at times.