Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone.

For the past few months I’ve slowly been working my way though the fractals and lately I’ve noticed is that a lot of groups always seem to be asking for or seem very proud of the fact they have a guardian among them. I’ll admit that my knowledge of other classes is not that great as I only really have experience as a Guardian and Elementalist, but I am curious why we are so in demand compared to other profession and I guess, more importantly is there something specific that Guardians are expected to be doing in these runs?

I tend to run with the standard AH build, using mostly knight’s gear with a few pieces of Zerkers fitted with Soldier Runes. I mix up my weapons and utility skills depending on the fractal / boss, but generally run with wall of reflection / Save yourself, Stand your ground and Hold the Line/Shield of the Avenger.

I understand that I’m playing as a support character, but I honestly don’t feel like I’m bringing enough to the group enough to be so sought after. The the only time I really feel that I bring anything unique to the group is countering the harpy’s knockback on the Uncategorized Fractal through stability and projectile absorbing / reflecting.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a complaint from any of the fractal runs I’ve done but I’m rather curious if I’m missing something basic or if that the support I’m providing is more useful than I give it credit for.

Any feedback, thoughts or tips and tricks would be appreciated.

From the looks of it, you’re pretty much performing at least the minimum expectations. If you played more professions, you would probably see how much you bring as a guardian in comparison to those professions.

The simple fact is that you’re a heavy armor profession with good survivability (even without investments) and a ton of useful utility to use on a 5-man team. Easy access to party condi removal via shouts is a lot more powerful than most other professions’ general party condi removal. Shield of the avenger can last 20-30s, depending on traits, which completely shuts down tom and other heavy projectile encounters. Wall of reflection has the advantage of being placed freely, creating a light field, and lasts longer than other professons’ basic anti-projectile. Other professions typically have very limited party support or have to do something awkward to make it useful, but guardian support is just very direct.

2 reasons come to mind. Wall of Reflection and Shield of Avenger. There are plenty more, I am sure, but these 2 make all the difference when fighting the shaman where most groups fall apart without them.

Guardian = reflection specialist
Also, boons, boons, boons.

Things you can reflect in fractals: harpy attacks in the Uncategorized Fractal, the boss’s flame attack in Volcanic Fractal (yes it will put the DOT on him), the mossman’s axes (I’m fairly sure about this), and just about any general projectile that may be thrown at you in any other fractal.

Things you can block with SotA (aside from anything you can also reflect): Old Tom’s projectiles in the Uncategorized Fractal (try standing right on top of him and using the skill), attacks from the ice elementals in the Snowblind Fractal, I think you can block dredge attacks (but not all of them) and the gun attacks if that path is the one taken in the Underground Facility Fractal.

I’m not sure this is a comprehensive list and some things may be incorrect (feel free to correct me).

Those things by themselves are incredibly useful, but taken with the fact that many of the things you can block or reflect also inflict Agony and that if you are doing it right you are buffing the team during all the fights anyway and you have your reason for Guardian popularity in nearly every party. My group has a general understanding that the overall success in any dungeon we are unfamiliar with is directly proportional to the number of Guardians in the party.

Guardian’s aren’t OP, but they take a lot of pressure off the rest of the group, which might be their greatest boon they can grant.