Guild Wars 2

Hello people,

I have come to this side of the forums for a little food for thought to feed my hungry mind. Currently it is munching on possibly switching from ranger as my main to guardian. I find myself attracted to the versatility of the guardian, being able to dps and heal/buff allies. I always start any rpg off as a ranged class but find myself losing interest over time shooting off arrows from the sidelines.

I took my ranger to lvl 80. Gearwise, i just currently have full exotics. I have unlocked most of the traits and have put in a fair amount of time in to the class.

So I come to you fellow guardians and ask:

How do you like the pve aspects of your guardians?

How about PVP and WvW?

I’ve been having this nagging feeling in the back of my mind to play guardian for a while now, but never fully went through with it due to time investment to lvl to 80. But I’m ready and willing to do so now. Dont get me wrong, I love the ranger, but I feel like it needs a good tweaking.

If you love your guardian speak up and tell me why because atm, I dont have that same passion for my ranger and am looking for a class that can give me that good feeling when I play it.

Thanks!

I chose Guardian because the support is plenty and almost unrivaled while the damage is quite good as well. As for what I like about the class; every weapon (some may exclude shield) has a character and can be used without restrictions, there are numerous roles and a variable of builds the class can play around freely and that the class has a lot in its disposal so there is always room for exploration and I feel relevant and useful in every content.

First of all. Forget about the healing stuff. You can, but that rarely, if ever, worth the amount of pts you will put in that.

1) Guardian in PvE is about defensive active support. Blind, Aegis and Reflection will allow you to keep your team alive and at 100% for short period of time. This is perfect if you play with good dps group because the guardian will keep your team at 100% to keep the scholar runes 10% dmg activate, and the team will kill most of the stuff before the guardian will run out of active support. You need to know the encounter and the animation to make the best out of your active defence, so you use them in the best timing and don’t waste them by simply spamming them. This is extremely active gameplay if you want to play the meta. Protection is also a big part of the Guardian gameplay in harder content like Fractal high level with the hammer.

2) WvW. There the guardian is a buff kitten in the melee train. Stability, Protection, Might and condi removal is the main responsibility of the guardian. Other than that, like the warrio stay together in the melee train, follow your commander, time your damage and stay alive.

3) sPvP. Two main gamestyle for the guardian there. Meditation Guardian are powerful at dealing dmg if you can stay in melee. Otherwise the Bunker guardian job will be go at one point (usually mid) and survive while supporting more dpsing teamates to keep the point occupied. Basically, you stay alive on the point to give time to your teamate to come help you.

I don’t have experience at all with roaming with Guardian (prefer other profession for that) so I won’t talk about that much. And you also have other kind of gameplay that you can do, but are usually not the best way to play a Guardian. They are viable, but less optimal. I mostly gave you, where the guardian can excel and what you can expect if you run that way.

The good thing about the Gua is that if you join to some random folks they don’t get +1 in number… They get A Guardian. Whatever build you play you are a force-multiplier not a “force-adder”. The playstyle is a bit slow-paced. Definitely not a lets-roll-our-face-on-the-keyboard type. You need cold blood and good timing. Thinking-positioning-decision-making-repeat. You can be the anchor of any group in general.

PvE: guardians can facetank some of the hardest enemies, properly timing blinds-dodges-aegis-reflect and get out without a scratch on their armour. Decent damage and survivability. Often both.
WvW: must-have profession in the zerg battles, excellent in havoc-teams and small scale roaming, lack of mobility for solo WvW. And thats what I hate here… you need some sort of swiftness runes/staff/GS/Sword. In a party this is a non-issue.
PvP: I don’t PvP so ask somebody else please!

My 2 cents/coppers

Aggrostemma.1703:

Whatever build you play you are a force-multiplier not a “force-adder”.

Ya a Clerics Staff guardian is more of a force-subtracter than anything else

Thaddeus.4891:

Aggrostemma.1703:

Whatever build you play you are a force-multiplier not a “force-adder”.

Ya a Clerics Staff guardian is more of a force-subtracter than anything else

It IS a force-multiplier… for the enemy… but still…

On the contrary I played a guardian to 80 and then I leveled a ranger.

Ranger pets are pretty clunky to use. Other than that it’s a decent class, and with the LB changes I get twice the number of kills on WvW.

But it’s just not as fun in PvP. I don’t need to time dodges preemptively because I can see the attacks coming from 1200 range. Melee is just more rewarding to play because it’s reactive. And I like seeing all the explosions up close.

WvW ranger > guardian in terms of fun and utility. Ranged dps > melee in zerg v zerg, and guardian’s ranged attacks are sorely lacking.
PvE guardian > ranger in terms of utility. Both are equally fun. Because PvE is boring.
PvP my personal preference is guardian, but I don’t play my ranger enough to give you a good answer. After i get enough Tomes of Knowledge I’ll go use my ranger toon again.

Rothem.8174:

WvW ranger > guardian in terms of fun and utility. Ranged dps > melee in zerg v zerg, and guardian’s ranged attacks are sorely lacking.

Guardian is actually arguably the most highly desired class in WvW zerg warfare. When you have such large numbers it becomes less about how much DPS you do and more about how well you can spread it out. And nothing beats guardian staff in terms of dealing area damage.

@ Rothem. Fun is subjective, but objectively the Guardian is on the top of the list in WvW zerg. Especially in coordinated group.

Guardian, Warrior, Necro and Elementalist are the core of any WvW coordinated zerg.

You can have Mesmer for portal, veil. You can have thief or Ranger for anti-periphery. But in the end, they should be a really small part of your zerg.

Ranged damage is useful but not dominating in zergs due to the overabundance of gap closers and cripples/chills/immobolize/stuns that get tossed around.

Guardians of course give stability and damage, so they are indispensable and one of the largest parts of any decent zerg along with warriors.