Guild Wars 2

So I recently hopped into PvP to get a better understanding of Guardian (I main Necromancer), and I got completely dominated. I even had toughness as my primary stat, yet it still felt like I got completely burned down in a few seconds. I tried taking lots of healing and protection skills, but that didn’t seem to work. What am I doing wrong here? How does Guardian primarily work?
Edit: I’m using this build. http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Altruistic_Healing_Bunker

Here’s the thing, Guardian isn’t someone who can passively facetank alot of damage directly like a warrior can. You need to be reactive in terms of your defence, with vigor generation, aegis, blocks and invulnerability.

If you could provide us with a bit more information on your current pvp build as well as playstyle, maybe we could help you out a little more

Guardian is a master of active defense. Use your blocks (shelter/aegis/mace3/focus5) and blinds (gs3, focus4, sword2, traited VoJ) to deal with damage. You can even use focused renewal to not only invuln for a bit but also recharge your virtue of courage for another aegis.

Actively defend yourself and you’ll live much longer.

Also if you’re running meditation build you can heal with those so don’t be afraid to use them if you need the heal.

Ah. That would explain a lot. I suppose I’m just too used to the whole “the best offense is a good defense” play style. I switched over to this build.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Altruistic_Healing_Bunker
I’ve still got a few questions though. What are the Guardians main sources of this damage mitigation? How do I remove enemy boons and how do I properly use aegis? Aegis doesn’t seem very good considering its rare sources and easy removal.

Alright here’s the thing.

As a bunker guardian, you hit like a wet noodle, that is an undisputed fact. Your true worth comes from generating might with the staff/ granting boons and removing conditions with your team for them to be more effective, keeping them alive etc. You’re annoyingly hard to kill on a point with allies but you’re very vulnerable on your own.

Your condition removal there comes from your shouts and the light fields you can generate with the mace. Aegis is again something to be timed and its use comes from experience with virtue of courage. You can’t exactly remove enemy boons with this build unless you trait searing flames in the radiance section.

Guardians main source of damage mitigation in your current build should 1, come from your Shelter, Renewed focus, aegis, and shield of wrath. Keep in mind you have ALOT of vigor generation so active rolling also counts as damage mitigation.

Aegis, is most useful when you can predict a strong burst from an enemy or some kind of disable. It’s also very good at stopping a stun or fear when you’re about to stomp a downed player.

However, as appealing a tank role is for a guardian, sadly it’s just not that viable at the moment against the current metas. If you want good condition removal as a bunker, I recommend placing 2 trait points in virtues and using purging flames instead of running 3 shouts. The firefields would be more beneficial for your team imo, not to mention it reduces condition durations in an area and removes 2 guaranteed.

I see. I’ll try it out. Thanks for the info. I think I’m getting the hang of it
One last question, are meditation healing builds a valid choice? Know any good ones?

The Wizland.8435:

So I recently hopped into PvP to get a better understanding of Guardian (I main Necromancer), and I got completely dominated. I even had toughness as my primary stat, yet it still felt like I got completely burned down in a few seconds. I tried taking lots of healing and protection skills, but that didn’t seem to work. What am I doing wrong here? How does Guardian primarily work?
Edit: I’m using this build. http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Altruistic_Healing_Bunker

Not to sound like a jerk but you sort of answered your own question

“I main a Necromancer”…and “I recently hopped”

What I mean is that you are not doing anything wrong other than only recently starting to play the Guardian. So you are learning, picking it up, understanding how it works, asking questions, etc. All most excellent things, so you get a A+.

@thread has pretty much summed it up for you with a few tips and tricks. Personally speaking the Guardian is petty well balanced. Unfortunately, the rest of the classes are not which leaves us in a bad place. Again, just my opinion of how the Guardian has evolved since launch when compared to other classes. In fact, I’d almost wager most of the Guardians that started out have since found alts

I think once you get a few more skirmishes under your belt you will be fine.