Guild Wars 2

I love playing my guardian. Its the first character I’ve created and I spent 1000+ hours just into my guardian because I really love it. I’ve started from pugging AC to soloing Lupi and now I am into level 49~50 fractals and I actually think I do okay (not causing party wipe, providing aegis/stability/reflection at the right moment).

But as I started becoming better I’ve been using other classes and I realized the immense importance of good guardians in a party group. My last SE p1 and p3 PUG group when I played as elementalist took me 40 minutes because the guardian in my party refused to use WoR or provide condi cleanse. I’ve also noticed that in fractals some guardians with hammer builds decided to charge into mobs then blame other classes, without blinding or providing party-wide aegis.

In other dungeons where I went as classes other than guardian (warrior/mesmer/ele), I found myself in similar situation where I had to play as a guard to actually finish the dungeon or stay inside and get party wiped until the instance owner ragequitted or kicked people out of spite.

So how can one be a good guardian and how can you tell the difference between good one and bad ones? I’m constantly looking to improve my game without being too hardcore which means not joining a strict 100% rep but using all the appropriate sigil+ potions+builds.

I don’t think I’m top PvE with Guardian. In PvE I know I’m decent, and with the dgns I know and farm the most I’m good. But I kinda have this problem too. Recently I’ve tried to main Warrior (got a bit tired of my Sylvari Guardian and the Warrior changes had me really excited till I saw Medi Guardian getting a bit buffed) and I get the same problems. Guardians that don’t want to use WoR, Guardians that still believe Cleric is the master gear for Guardians and that Cleric Healer is the best role for PvE (I had a couple of this in my previous guild and boy I really had to hold on a bit to not rage to the non-sence) and not to mention the staff might stack Guardians, the most comon plague of Guardian pugs (I have a staff only for TA and nothing beside that).

Advices? I don’t think I have any, you are better than me in PvE, but since I’ve become used to Berserker Guardian I usually look for other Berserker Parties. I got to stay up better on those than with other kinda of parties. Anything beside that leave it.

Make sure to check Obals guide between the stickies in this forums, it has got it all covered: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first

Bring GS/S+F 90% times, Hammer for fights that you know the protection is actually needed. Try 2/5/0/0/5, Virtue of Justice will bring might, blind and vulnerability, Resolve will bring Regen and Courage will bring protection and you’ll have all your consecration skills last longer and cool down faster

Knowing your encounter will help you a lot, you’ll want to keep changing your selected consecrations and shouts to suit what is needed, bringing stability will be your job and everyone will notice when you forgot to bring it, same thing with reflections (the spirit shield is also a very important tool in some encounters)
You don’t have a lot of Aegis to spam out just like that, so try to time it for big attacks so it doesn’t get procced by some lame small attack.
The bad guard concentrates only on himself, he’ll ignore the party members health and condition bars while focusing on himself with stuff like signets and meditations in PVE – but you can’t be suicidal either, since you’ll be running around with ~12k hp in berserker armour you’ll die easily yourself if you time dodges and blocks wrong (personally it feels a bit embarassing when I lie dead and I have light armoured ppl running around finishing the boss)
From shouts you’ll want to use Stand your Ground or Retreat, Hold the Line doesn’t work that well
When a typical stack starts in a dungeon, you can put down a fire field (assuming an Ele didn’t put one down already) from either Purging Flames or Hallowed Ground and blast it with your Focus #5. You can also quickly snatch a Warriors banner and use its skill 5 to blast another 3 mights for your party

Shortly: bring dps, stability, blinds, condi removal, reflections, some might and then use magic and don’t die

Mhm… Obal’s guide is the bestest. It taught me a lot about being a guardian. I also watched some DnT videos.. one by Nike are pretty good.. Obal’s too.

I am going to say also try the sceptor/focus and greatsword. That’s what I have been using lately.. sword/f is great too but for bosses with big boxes, sceptor works well and plus you can kite. If one thing to remember as a new guard, Wall of Reflection is your friend. You can’t go wrong with WoR. Stand Your Ground is a great stability, retreat.. purging flames.. those are the utilities I use the most. I would also trait your F2 to condi cleanse since a lot of the dungeons have condi effects.

You can also pull the mob to you by using your gs 5 and use that as crowd control.. then 2 and 4 on gs.. your health is very low and it’s pretty easy to get downed if you run the glass cannon build. Don’t get discouraged if you tend to fall a lot at first. And don’t get overwhelmed. Learning everything about a guard takes time. It’s a very valuable profession that can be rewarding.