Guild Wars 2

I noticed that guards are only good in a group but alone they crumble fast and cant hold there own against 2v1s

Guardians really excel in groups though, and while this isn’t the most glorious thing you can imagine, it’s still a very useful and desired niche that they fill.
If you want to play guard, and excel in 1v1 type situations, an offensive med guard, or a condi burn guard tend to do fairly well.

I know there are counter examples out there, but most classes aren’t designed to handle a 2v1 and win assuming all three participants are of equal skill level. Honestly I’ve never built for a 2v1 scenario, but I imagine that if you have a chance of winning one, then higher sustain zerk med builds, and shout guardians have the tools to increase your chances of victory there.

med guard is actually one of the best 1v1s

Just my area!
clears throat
Step right up folks and view these spectacular Guardian builds! Don’t be shy! Click away! Witness the amazing burn build for Solo or Ranked pvp!
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/TPvP-Condi-Guard-Roaming-Guide/first#post4804999

Can’t handle the 1v1 spec!? View post #2 and have your team carry you!

skeptic.2409:

I noticed that guards are only good in a group but alone they crumble fast and cant hold there own against 2v1s

It depend on your build, but true guardian is better in group. Now for the 2vs1 it is really all about what is your adversary and what are the skills of each individual. I used to hold 3vs1 for quite something on my bunker guardian, but then again I could be annihilated by 2 other ppl. There is a huge difference when you fight 2 ppl that have a good build against yours and are better than you or when you fight 2 ppl that don’t have a good build against yours and are worst than you.

skeptic.2409:

I noticed that guards are only good in a group but alone they crumble fast and cant hold there own against 2v1s

Yesterday slugging* in WvW near a flag in the center ruins a Mesmer came at me and we did engage in a long combat; after like 90 seconds or so a Thief joined to the enemy, so I had to chose to focus in this new foe -due the Mesmer was decent and the combat was meant to last- to prevent the double focus as much as I could. Was a clever choice: the Thief was able to land his Basilisk venom, but I managed to avoid most of the burst. Less than 15 seconds later the Thief was in panic mode trying to left the fight jumping away but I crush him to death; albeit with most of my skills were in cooldown I was still able to turn the tide against the Mesmer and kill him. The Thief was arguably bad, but the Mesmer was decent.

I guess that dps roamers searching for easy preys aren’t used to face a Meditation Guardian with 3k armor and ~23k HP which heals over 1k HP x evade. Guardians are terribad for roaming due their slow pace and lack of soft cc, but so far they are also one of the strongest class in duels.

(*) The Guardian version of roaming, distinguished by it’s slow, silly walk.

yes anything besides meditation guard is a bit silly when alone.

Yes, this is exactly what is plaguing the class right now. It’s a class designed around the idea of supporting allies to do well, even though the game discourages support builds and plays better when players are more self-reliant.

In other words, the guardian is a walking contradiction.

Black Box.9312:

Yes, this is exactly what is plaguing the class right now. It’s a class designed around the idea of supporting allies to do well, even though the game discourages support builds and plays better when players are more self-reliant.

In other words, the guardian is a walking contradiction.

So because the game push you to be self-reliant on your healing that mean that it discourage support build? That’s why most meta build in WvW, sPvP and PvE bring more support than most other build? Weird.

Thaddeus.4891:

Black Box.9312:

Yes, this is exactly what is plaguing the class right now. It’s a class designed around the idea of supporting allies to do well, even though the game discourages support builds and plays better when players are more self-reliant.

In other words, the guardian is a walking contradiction.

So because the game push you to be self-reliant on your healing that mean that it discourage support build? That’s why most meta build in WvW, sPvP and PvE bring more support than most other build? Weird.

In WvW, support guardians exist only in large group settings, where balance is largely irrelevant because it becomes a numbers game. Beyond this, most “support” comes in the form of elementalists providing water fields, which are then blasted for area heals. Guardian’s party healing skills are terrible, and until healing power is improved to actually be effective they will stay terrible.

In sPvP, this is just 100% incorrect. In sPvP, meta builds are strong because they’re self-sufficient. Some builds like shoutbow warrior also provide some team support in the process, but that has nothing to do with the reasons why the build is strong. Bunker guardians are falling out of the meta because it’s a build that can only hold a point, and it depends on other players to do the damage and CC for it. By contrast, warriors, engis, and eles can all do this same thing while actually providing the damage and CC themselves.

In PvE, guardian “support” is very minimal and only exists to make things easier. It is very much possible to run speedclears without a guardian; the party aegis just saves people from needing an extra dodge.

kitten.1685:

med guard is actually one of the best 1v1s

It is, until you run into an enemy that can kite well & avoid spike damage.

At which point you may as well smash your head on the keyboard.

Black Box.9312:

Thaddeus.4891:

Black Box.9312:

Yes, this is exactly what is plaguing the class right now. It’s a class designed around the idea of supporting allies to do well, even though the game discourages support builds and plays better when players are more self-reliant.

In other words, the guardian is a walking contradiction.

So because the game push you to be self-reliant on your healing that mean that it discourage support build? That’s why most meta build in WvW, sPvP and PvE bring more support than most other build? Weird.

In WvW, support guardians exist only in large group settings, where balance is largely irrelevant because it becomes a numbers game. Beyond this, most “support” comes in the form of elementalists providing water fields, which are then blasted for area heals. Guardian’s party healing skills are terrible, and until healing power is improved to actually be effective they will stay terrible.

In sPvP, this is just 100% incorrect. In sPvP, meta builds are strong because they’re self-sufficient. Some builds like shoutbow warrior also provide some team support in the process, but that has nothing to do with the reasons why the build is strong. Bunker guardians are falling out of the meta because it’s a build that can only hold a point, and it depends on other players to do the damage and CC for it. By contrast, warriors, engis, and eles can all do this same thing while actually providing the damage and CC themselves.

In PvE, guardian “support” is very minimal and only exists to make things easier. It is very much possible to run speedclears without a guardian; the party aegis just saves people from needing an extra dodge.

I’d actually have to disagree with the part about guardian group heals sucking.

With the proper build you can actually out AOE heal an elementalist, it’s just limited more by range.
This is mainly due to how well the dodge heal can scale in WvW & PvE along with other heals & celestial gear.

In SPvP however the healing provided by the dodge heal is halved, which hurts quite a bit.

WvW (keep in mind that I only talk about organized guild, couldn’t care less about pugs blop). What support exist. Condition removal from both warrior and guardians, might stacking, water field + blast, veil, stability. Those are the most important and are setup in advance with the right quantity of each, their order and rotation within the group. You can also add protection, reflection and retaliation. Reflection and retaliation will be call or not depending on your group and what you face that day. Protection is important, but that’s usually at the discretion of the guardian and no called or prepare in advance.

PvE : Everything is optional. You could run naked without trait if you want. That doesn’t mean that support don’t have a huge place. Might Stacking, Vulnerability, Fury, Protection, Reflection, Condition removal, Aegis, banners, blind, etc. All of those are used by group to help the team have a better and faster run. Support is a HUGE portion of dungeon speed running and meta build.

sPvP : Meta build are self-reliant but most of them play better in support of each other because you will rarely fight in 1vs1 in conquest mode. Warrior will heal, remove conditions, stack might. The Elementalist will heal and stack might. The Engineer and Necromancer will control movement. The thief will finish off the job, stomp and rezz. They can all work alone, but they all work better with each other because that’s the concept of conquest. If sPvP was mostly about 1vs1, meta build wouldn’t be as they are today.

Black Box.9312:

In WvW, support guardians exist only in large group settings, where balance is largely irrelevant because it becomes a numbers game. Beyond this, most “support” comes in the form of elementalists providing water fields, which are then blasted for area heals. Guardian’s party healing skills are terrible, and until healing power is improved to actually be effective they will stay terrible.

The most important support abilities from raid guardians are 1) Stability 2) Power stacking and 3) Condition cleansing.

I do agree that they lost some of their appeal as support -specially in PvP, where some other classes can tank as good while providing better damage-, but in large groups at WvW they are still very relevant. You can run a raid of 20 only guardians and melt everything in your path just pressing staff 1. The reson due the meta is GWEN is because not overyone has/likes to play a heavy character.

I switched to warriors recently after almost 3k hours on guardians and they are much much much much did I say much better wait di you hear me much better.

Thaddeus.4891:

sPvP : Meta build are self-reliant but most of them play better in support of each other because you will rarely fight in 1vs1 in conquest mode. Warrior will heal, remove conditions, stack might. The Elementalist will heal and stack might. The Engineer and Necromancer will control movement. The thief will finish off the job, stomp and rezz. They can all work alone, but they all work better with each other because that’s the concept of conquest. If sPvP was mostly about 1vs1, meta build wouldn’t be as they are today.

That’s through strategy and teamwork, and has nothing to do with the skills themselves. A good PvP team will focus targets and contest points properly as a team, but they do it by using their own skillsets that are based on attacking the enemy and providing self-sustain. That has nothing to do with anyone being a ‘support’.

Buran.3796:

Black Box.9312:

In WvW, support guardians exist only in large group settings, where balance is largely irrelevant because it becomes a numbers game. Beyond this, most “support” comes in the form of elementalists providing water fields, which are then blasted for area heals. Guardian’s party healing skills are terrible, and until healing power is improved to actually be effective they will stay terrible.

The most important support abilities from raid guardians are 1) Stability 2) Power stacking and 3) Condition cleansing.

I do agree that they lost some of their appeal as support -specially in PvP, where some other classes can tank as good while providing better damage-, but in large groups at WvW they are still very relevant. You can run a raid of 20 only guardians and melt everything in your path just pressing staff 1. The reson due the meta is GWEN is because not overyone has/likes to play a heavy character.

Yea. While numbers are the dominating factor in wvw, a proper composition will easily overrun equal numbers and possbily larger numbers of an imbalanced composition and a good amount of guardians tend to be needed while you might only need a small amount of skilled eles/necros

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

kitten.1685:

med guard is actually one of the best 1v1s

It is, until you run into an enemy that can kite well & avoid spike damage.

At which point you may as well smash your head on the keyboard.

nope. it loses to d/d ele. and thats it.

kitten.1685:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

kitten.1685:

med guard is actually one of the best 1v1s

It is, until you run into an enemy that can kite well & avoid spike damage.

At which point you may as well smash your head on the keyboard.

nope. it loses to d/d ele. and thats it.

Necro and condi engi also counter it pretty well. And that aside, anyone who’s smart will know how to kite one.

Black Box.9312:

kitten.1685:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

kitten.1685:

med guard is actually one of the best 1v1s

It is, until you run into an enemy that can kite well & avoid spike damage.

At which point you may as well smash your head on the keyboard.

nope. it loses to d/d ele. and thats it.

Necro and condi engi also counter it pretty well. And that aside, anyone who’s smart will know how to kite one.

guard counters necro actually and engi is a winnable matchup if you outplay them

Any cele build comp team heavily outplays Medi zerkers.

If you’re looking for strict 1v1 build you might as well go condi hybrid. If you’re looking to be a good team support, have sustains, while still do decently in 1v1, go 00464 carrion in my sig.

I’m not saying medi zerks are bad, they just get out sustained by cele classes.