Guild Wars 2

I want to be viable for wvw pve pvp in that order i leveled my warrior to lvl 45 and then realised hes just kind of boring, now my main play style in all rpgs is a spell sword kind of guy so the gaurdian always apealed to me but other people were telling me a guardian cant do good damage and in wvw is not the best because he doesnt have a ranged option.

Now i do sometimes LIKE being in the big zerg – force, not always but sometimes a zerg is required for taking down big keeps in wvw, i mos def. wanna be able to damage stuff in zergs, im more of a damagy player then pure tank.

I did dabble in world of warcraft and i did like the paladin class their a lot, i played a ret pally which offered great survivability with awesome damage, Im not exactly saying i need a ret counter-part i just dont wanna be pure support.

So mainly i would love a class that can go melee in zergs viably, as the warrior seems to owned if im not VERY VERY carefull running in and going melee on enemy zerg (with my zerg ofcourse).

As the gaurdian has no ranged options i need to know if i stop playing my lvl 45 warrior, and continue on leveling my lvl 12 guardian that i will be viable in zergs going full melee as its my only real good option, besides being full support, but you dont get drops from being support or any rewards.

Ive never been the kind of player that likes playing monks and or solely team buffing / protecting characters and the like so i dont mind some support but i would like to be based around:
Self buffing myself, buffing my team is a plus

-Dealing good damage,
-Being about to revert damage back, or being able to take hits long enough to deal decent damage in zergs in melee range (the warrior i couldnt stay around long enough in melee range to deal significant damage, and this is what i hear from people who main lvl 80 warrios is too.)
-Being able to play a class similair to a spellsword.

Now onto my last problem…

It seems for warrior / Gaurdian that greatswords are the only weapon that really fits my play style (greatsword as a main weapon)
My delema is i HATE the look of greatswords their alll redic. big like Final fantasy heck even in wow they had decent looking 2hand swords that looked like normal swords or 1 handed swords that you just weild with two hands

I tried 1 hand sword on gaurdian and it just seems meh Especially for WvW now i love the shield for the guardian (is the shield good in wvw?) I would prefer

1 hand sword / shield & staff as my weapons of choice for my wvw / pve guardian build but i want to do decent damage and also the greatsword skills just seem way more fun and better. So either tell me is their a greatsword that looks small?

i found 1 example which is one of the first greatswords you get its found in the human starting zone its very skinny and bland looking but it looks like a 1 hand sword just with a long hilt, is their any GOOD looking swords that look like this?

Its a shame theirs so many good looking 1 hand swords but i just cant find them viable.

Anything thanks ahead of time people and i hope you can answer my many questions.

I didn’t read your whole post, but I will say this.

If you like playing support, being hard to kill, while dealing mediocre damage and having the worst range in game, then go with the guardian.

If you like killing stuff, go the warrior.

LOCO.1785:

I didn’t read your whole post, but I will say this.

If you like playing support, being hard to kill, while dealing mediocre damage and having the worst range in game, then go with the guardian.

If you like killing stuff, go the warrior.

I agree with this statement, having played only a guardian.

I have both a warrior and a guardian. I love my guardian and consider it my main. However, the warrior is way more fun in WVW for the reason you already mention: they get ranged weapons.

The whining you’ve no doubt heard about the scepter really does have something behind it. The auto-attack is too slow to be effective against other players and the other abilities have a long-ish cooldown. The staff, while powerful, just doesn’t have the range for a lot of situations. That means that as a guardian you’ll be spending a good deal of time playing support because it’s the only thing you can do at the moment. If that’s worth it to you to be able to hold up a little better once you do get in melee range, then go for it. However, if I, someone who does play full support in most MMOs, get frustrated with the lack of range, then I can only imagine how a more damage-oriented player would feel.

1-handed sword actually is viable on both guardian and warrior, at least as a secondary set for the gap closer. Check out Yojack’s build in the warrior forums for one way it can work. However, if you like the greatsword, you should go with that. As with all MMOs, you kind of have to put mechanics above cosmetics to a certain point if you want to do well.

Blissified.8369:

I want to be viable for wvw pve pvp in that order i leveled my warrior to lvl 45 and then realised hes just kind of boring, now my main play style in all rpgs is a spell sword kind of guy so the gaurdian always apealed to me but other people were telling me a guardian cant do good damage and in wvw is not the best because he doesnt have a ranged option.

Now i do sometimes LIKE being in the big zerg – force, not always but sometimes a zerg is required for taking down big keeps in wvw, i mos def. wanna be able to damage stuff in zergs, im more of a damagy player then pure tank.

I did dabble in world of warcraft and i did like the paladin class their a lot, i played a ret pally which offered great survivability with awesome damage, Im not exactly saying i need a ret counter-part i just dont wanna be pure support.

So mainly i would love a class that can go melee in zergs viably, as the warrior seems to owned if im not VERY VERY carefull running in and going melee on enemy zerg (with my zerg ofcourse).

As the gaurdian has no ranged options i need to know if i stop playing my lvl 45 warrior, and continue on leveling my lvl 12 guardian that i will be viable in zergs going full melee as its my only real good option, besides being full support, but you dont get drops from being support or any rewards.

Ive never been the kind of player that likes playing monks and or solely team buffing / protecting characters and the like so i dont mind some support but i would like to be based around:
Self buffing myself, buffing my team is a plus

-Dealing good damage,
-Being about to revert damage back, or being able to take hits long enough to deal decent damage in zergs in melee range (the warrior i couldnt stay around long enough in melee range to deal significant damage, and this is what i hear from people who main lvl 80 warrios is too.)
-Being able to play a class similair to a spellsword.

Now onto my last problem…

It seems for warrior / Gaurdian that greatswords are the only weapon that really fits my play style (greatsword as a main weapon)
My delema is i HATE the look of greatswords their alll redic. big like Final fantasy heck even in wow they had decent looking 2hand swords that looked like normal swords or 1 handed swords that you just weild with two hands

I tried 1 hand sword on gaurdian and it just seems meh Especially for WvW now i love the shield for the guardian (is the shield good in wvw?) I would prefer

1 hand sword / shield & staff as my weapons of choice for my wvw / pve guardian build but i want to do decent damage and also the greatsword skills just seem way more fun and better. So either tell me is their a greatsword that looks small?

i found 1 example which is one of the first greatswords you get its found in the human starting zone its very skinny and bland looking but it looks like a 1 hand sword just with a long hilt, is their any GOOD looking swords that look like this?

Its a shame theirs so many good looking 1 hand swords but i just cant find them viable.

Anything thanks ahead of time people and i hope you can answer my many questions.

And since you “dabbled” with WoW, Guardian is NOTHING like pally at all. Not ret pally, not prot pally, not holy pally. Guards in GW2 are basically buff giving battle mages. You have access to just about every buff in the game, you were heavy armor and you provide constant, not great support and damage.

Thanks urthona for actually giving a real answer and taking literally 1 minute to read the whole post, seriously some pople either read very slow, are plain rude or are just lazy.

I like the longsword skills but i HATE the looks, unless they add some smaller looking greatswords, i like 2 hand swords that are smaller, hence in wow they have them but in wow their not called greatswords.

If anyone has a gs skin that isnt too big, actually one thats smallest u can get please link me a pic / name!

Theirs one small gs you can find at the begening of human zones

Not the claymore – looking one this one im refering too doesnt have a “gaurd” At the hilt part, as in no horizontol points stickin out where blade and hilt meet ; this one i like but its very bland, perhaps like most other weapons, this one has a re-skin thats exotic ?

I’m still on the fence about my choice, so some of you guys are telling me that a warrior can melee in zergs also? i do like that if a warrior can melee in zergs as good as a guardian AND the warrior has ranged options (great options at that!) – LB &Rifle then i may have to go with warrior.

But their sooo BORING i like being able to use complex skills and magic in heavy armor im just not sure if its what i expected!!!

So theirs no good DAMAGE viable non full support gaurdians??

Someone told me warrior SUCK in WvW and PvP and that warriors cant tank or deal damage and that guardians dmg dealing is on par with more survivability ? And that guardians own at both?

I guess if I had to pick the WoW class closest to the guardian in feel I’d say enhancement shaman. (Not vanilla, infinite Windfury crit shaman, though.)There’s no perfect equivalent, but the focus on buffs and the short/mid-ranged abilities are there.

And if you want a difficult “rotation”, then guardian is no better than warrior. If anything, guardian is more slow-paced. In all seriousness, have you tried elementalist?

Blissified.8369:

Thanks urthona for actually giving a real answer and taking literally 1 minute to read the whole post, seriously some pople either read very slow, are plain rude or are just lazy.

I like the longsword skills but i HATE the looks, unless they add some smaller looking greatswords, i like 2 hand swords that are smaller, hence in wow they have them but in wow their not called greatswords.

If anyone has a gs skin that isnt too big, actually one thats smallest u can get please link me a pic / name!

Theirs one small gs you can find at the begening of human zones

Not the claymore – looking one this one im refering too doesnt have a “gaurd” At the hilt part, as in no horizontol points stickin out where blade and hilt meet ; this one i like but its very bland, perhaps like most other weapons, this one has a re-skin thats exotic ?

I’m still on the fence about my choice, so some of you guys are telling me that a warrior can melee in zergs also? i do like that if a warrior can melee in zergs as good as a guardian AND the warrior has ranged options (great options at that!) – LB &Rifle then i may have to go with warrior.

But their sooo BORING i like being able to use complex skills and magic in heavy armor im just not sure if its what i expected!!!

So theirs no good DAMAGE viable non full support gaurdians??

Someone told me warrior SUCK in WvW and PvP and that warriors cant tank or deal damage and that guardians dmg dealing is on par with more survivability ? And that guardians own at both?

PVP is completely different when it comes to dmg. You have less control over the damage you do to other players then you do with a mob that is standing right in front of you. Guardian dmg is not currently on par with warrior, HOWEVER we can typically stay in fights longer because of healing and blocks, therefore making us a more annoying target to kill or takedown.

Do note that as for ranged, guards have crap range and you will be kited all over if you dson’t play smart. Scepter dps is slow and can easily be dodged.

Urthona.3198:

I guess if I had to pick the WoW class closest to the guardian in feel I’d say enhancement shaman. (Not vanilla, infinite Windfury crit shaman, though.)There’s no perfect equivalent, but the focus on buffs and the short/mid-ranged abilities are there.

And if you want a difficult “rotation”, then guardian is no better than warrior. If anything, guardian is more slow-paced. In all seriousness, have you tried elementalist?

I always wanted to try necro and elementalist ( I LOVE NECROS IN GAMES) but one look on their forums even b4 i bought the game i choose never to play until necros had more viable roles (necros are necros cuz of summons / darkness.. We what we have in gw2 seem more of a warlock).

And Eles?? the eles say their not viable at all and our currently always getting nerfed.

My first char was actually a theif (lvl 45) but i felt pigeonholed in pve/wvw/pvp to use dd / lb which was fun for a while but gets very boring since this games skills rely on half of ur weapon you use. Also theif traps = suck.

Eles and necro seem bugged and broken at least in the forums.

Most people are telling me warrior i presume? stick with my lvl 45? its so boring though, i want magic and melee and to be able to tank wvw zergs! Also if u look at t/s pvp NO ONE USES WARRIOR, and im not sure about them in wvw they if i like them yet.

I would say No. Guardian is kinda boring compared to a Warrior.

Why? Don’t just say no.

I say warriors more boring because they dont use magic and all their skills basicly number game with damage, although this “save adrenalin” build might work out

Warrior’s have superior damage compared with Guardians, same stats, same trait logic.

But Guardian’s survivability is unbelieavable.

Don’t believe what you see here. Warriors have high burst damage not higher overall damage. The guardian is all about sustained damage and AOE.

Warriors generally die faster than guardians so it balances out.

In W3 I doubt there is a more versatile class in the game. Who needs ranged when you have wall of reflection? Lol 5 seconds of reflected damage to your enemy does an incredible amount of damage even to a Zerg. My tactic is to run in front of a Zerg and put up a wall of reflection as my team covers me with range support and other Melee rush in unscathed. The great thing is you will not go down at all if played right.

As for killing? Elementalists go down quick, mesmers just the same (but requires a bit more tact), necro takes a bit longer but seeing as they can’t kill you it doesn’t matter, rangers? Lol steam rolled, thrives are just lol warriors are only dangerous for 10 seconds, survive their burst and they die pretty quick (guardians burning dmg really hurts them as we’ll as doing consistent dmg while your trying to stay alive chips away their high HP. After the 10 seconds you will automatically have that evil grin and say “my turn kitten”. The only thing to avoid are other guardians. It will take a good 5 minutes before you can see who has the upper hand.

The sceptre is decent at mid range, which is great when combined with wall of reflection. It’s not like we don’t have any range. Guardians are frontline soldiers. Your not supposed to have back and go pew pew. There may not be a trinity in GW2 but some classes do certain things better than others.

I agree fully with KensaiZen. Most people giving “counsel” here seem to not have played Guardian at all in WvW. Guardians are one of the few classes (maybe the only one) that can rush in a zerg and survive. We don’t need range at all in WvW, except when on the walls.

You have to play aggressively, as a frontline fighter, and your weapons are your melee companions and Wall of Reflection. You have to play smart surviving a zerg. You put up WoR, then if you have hammer you put ring of warding (or line of warding with staff) to divide them (even horribly bugged as it is, it works well in splitting a group), and then your companions arrive and you’re mass buffing them with shouts and AoE Retaliation, while hitting away with your hammer.

The Warrior counterpart at this point is out cold from several thousands arrows and spells, leaving a hole in your charge.

You can play horribly ofc. Trying to kill people 1v1 (useless), or charging headlong without concern or protection (suicidal) or without melee companions (you won’t last long).

If there is a class that benefits from zergs in WvW is the guardian. Try having 3 Staff-armed Guardians at the fore of a charge and tell me how it went
(Hint, all three guardians will cast different spells each time…)

The real nemesis of the Guardian are AoE Condition damage and boon stealers (i.e. Necros and Mesmers), and in WvW you will rarely encounter Condition Necros, while most of the mesmers i have encountered where newbies that failed to kill me even with all the advantages they have (they must have been portal bots…).

As for Greatswords: roll an Asura. their weapons are tiny and so your GS won’t look like Cloud’s behemoth but like a Norn’s toothpick.

Guardians have ranged weapons…kinda. Staff is technically ranged but 600 feels like melee. It’s a support weapon. Scepter is slow. Having said that, when at range I can be an incredible support ally, buffing, healing, mitigating, etc. Then jump into melee and be incredibly hard to kill, while still dishing out damage. I like it.

And our virtues & utilities are much more dynamic than Warrior’s. Rather than (really good) passive buffs like Warrior banners & signets, Guard brings shouts, consecrations, control, & signets too. They’re more fun to use.

I would had thought a Warrior would be more fun to play because of the amount of options they have with weapons including ranged. Having said that, you might get more fun out of the guardian because you’re simply very difficult to kill while the warrior’s defensive and support options are more limited.

So if you prefer to have more options in weapons and burst damage. Go Warrior. Or if you like outlasting enemies and being more independent, go Guardian.

Did a dungeon run with 3 other guardians and 1 warrior. It was the smoothest experience I ever had. The constant symbols being smashed into the ground, the healing and boons flying everywhere. It was magic. Guardian damage isn’t exactly high end stuff but if everyone stays topped up with boons, enemies go down even quicker than you’d expect.

Try a might stacking guardian, use staff off hand for the healing and a weapon of choice that can get frequent crits e.g the one hand sword. Add in food that gives you might on crit and then you will be a healing dps overtime machine. But you need to use the obtain might on crit trait also and the trait that give healing when you buff. Give it a try!

I have a level 80 Warrior and a Level 80 Guardian.
– I also do Greatsword as the “first” weapon on both of them. I prefer the animations of the Guardian over the warrior.
– As far as the weapon skins, if you found a lower level Greatsword skin you like, you should be able to apply that to any level weapon, so the look of the weapon should be a solvable issue for you.
– PvE wise I currently prefer the Guardian over the Warrior, even though the warrior has a lot better ranged option than the Guardian. Some of the reasons I like the Guardian over the Warrior is I do prefer to melee, however many fights in GW2 are not friendly to melee. The guardians defense, retaliation, ability to heal lets me melee more fights than my warrior, at least using the builds I prefer to use for each class. When soloing I find the self combo field options are better for the guardian and I enjoy the combo fields aspect of the game a lot.
– PvP Wise, I do a lot better on my warrior in sPvP and WvW, but I have 4x the experience pvp’ing on my warrior than I do my guardian as my warrior was my first level 80, so even though I have a decent amount of time played in WvW and sPvP I can only say I am currently more effective on my warrior due to experience with the class.
– One suggestion I have if the WvW PvP Aspect is a big part of your decision, go watch some of the really good Warrior and Guardian PvP videos on you tube to at least get an idea of what they are capable of in the hands of a skilled/knowledgeable player.

Off topic, but how to you apply that lower lvl greatsword skin?

There’s no doubt that for WvW a Shout+A.Healing → GS/Hammer build will give you ~lots~ of distance in terms of survivability and good damage w/ a solid Burst Combo w/ decent Crit gear.

To say that a Warrior has no survivability is to only say you don’t spec survivability because you then cannot “DPS”…. well guess what? That’s what it’s like as a Guardian when playing with optimal builds: IE, non glass cannons.

I’ve recently changed my build and am now using Scepter / Torch + GS. The range is a wonderful additon when used ~correctly~: Ie, when you’re being kited. It hits like a TRUCK.. do not be fooled.

So there is a ~ranged~ weapon. The issue is people want pure Ranged Mechancis… which is something we lack a bit. It is true, to spec fully range dps or glass cannon (15/15/30/0/10), Guardains due lack inherant escape mechanics which other classes just get through thier weapons abilities.

But this isn’t to say you can’t make the build work, just change your perspective of Ranged Combat and undertand… you need to melee dps in combination with ranged damage: Scepter 2 + JI + Torch → switch to GS…. that is a ton of hurt.

I think the problem most people have with warriors is they don’t incorporate enough Defense to whithstand the AoE rain. There’s plenty of damage on the Warrior’s side..

On top of that, you have an ~incredible~ ranged option, which completely changes your playstyle.

So if you’re wanting more ‘options’ in terms of builds / playstles in WvW, deviating from Warrior is going to make everything else seem so…. pigeonholed.

Maybe Elementalists… like others have stated.

Oh, and the people crying wolf are those that NEED OP classes in order to make up defeciencies in thier own ability….

chuckles

Warrior with endure pain 5 second and shield block asking for a more survivable profession in World v World.

redknight.8036:

chuckles

Warrior with endure pain 5 second and shield block asking for a more survivable profession in World v World.

Guardians can resist a lot more than 5 seconds, even without using Renewed Focus.
The only difference is we don’t do a lot of damage in the meanwhile.

Guardian and watch the thief’s run (well most of them) takes them to long to kill you (1vs1). Obviously based on how well you play.

Kriv.4052:

Off-topic, but how do you apply that lower level Greatsword skin?

With a transmutation stone, I would assume.

As to the other part of your question, here are some greatsword skins that I think look good and meet your criteria:
Aureate highlander (also given as a reward early in the personal story line)
Ebonblade
Ebon Vanguard Greatsword
Kymswarden (also reward from personal story line near the end of the game – Longsword skin from GW1)
Khrysaor, The Golden Sword/Dawn

Kriv.4052:

Off topic, but how to you apply that lower lvl greatsword skin?

Kriv – with a Transmutation Stone.

See http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Stone

Leowan.4389:

Kriv.4052:

Off topic, but how to you apply that lower lvl greatsword skin?

Kriv – with a Transmutation Stone.

See http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Stone

Thanks Leowan!

LOCO.1785:

I didn’t read your whole post, but I will say this.

If you like playing support, being hard to kill, while dealing mediocre damage and having the worst range in game, then go with the guardian.

If you like killing stuff, go the warrior.

This is actually the exact reality of it, regardless if you have a problem with the person saying it.

If you play a Guardian you’ll find out pretty fast that 0/0/30/20/20 or 0/15/30/20/5 or 0/0/30/30/10 are your choices if you want to be competitive. I’m not sure how much choice a Warrior has, but the Guardian doesn’t have much, so just a warning.

You can do what I’ve done for the last 5 months and try every seemingly viable skill/trait/weapon/armor combination and retrait 10 times a day though. If you do that, you’ll learn more about the cookie cutter than even most who play it know.

The current problem with Guardians is that you can either build for survival and support, or you can not. If you don’t, you don’t gain a proportional amount of anything else. You look at a Guardian’s survival and support and think “what if i traded all of that for something else?” and even at the other end of the spectrum you’ll find that you don’t gain much in comparison.

@OP
Have a look at this greatsword
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ebon_Vanguard_Greatsword

I know this thread is old, but whatever it got bumped so….

@Blissified

You would love Guardian, your play style sound similar to mine. Guardians are easily the best zerg buster in the game. I can’t count how many times I’ve been able to rout enemy players. Yes, it’s true that your dps won’t be as high as a Warrior, but it’s far from mediocre. Plus you gain amazing survivability.

In my +500 hours on my Guardian the only thing I’ve really discovered is you need 30 in Valor competitive. Other then that you can put traits where ever you want, to fit your playstyle. (Yes I know there are a lot of good players that don’t use Valor, but I’m talking about the majority here)

Here’s a vid I uploaded the other day, pretty much sums up your play style.

That’s a load of Bull Alarox.

Those are cookie cutter builds and they are by NO MEANS the only competitive choices.

How good you are is not indicitive of your spec.

Personally, I like 25/10/30/0/5 w/ lots of crit / crit dmg and stack heals on crit from sigils and food.

Works just fine.

And to re-quote, 30 in valor is extremely good (toughness, crit Dmg, Healing)

One thing I wish people would understand is the concept of “Support”. Warriors “Support” just as much as Guardians, it’s just different.

Warriors “Support” is more catered to offense.

Guardians “Support” is more catered to defense.

lol i know have had a lvl 80 guardian for months :P its my main.